While Egypt has avoided officially commenting on the Israeli threat not to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza Strip, an informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that “there is a clause in the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that stipulates that the occupation forces will complete their withdrawal from the corridor on the fiftieth day of the truce, and until then, each incident will be discussed.”

Media reports quoted an Israeli official as saying on Thursday that his country will not withdraw from the strategic Philadelphi Corridor on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement.

The official said Israeli forces needed to remain in the Philadelphi Corridor, on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, to prevent weapons smuggling, which Israel alleges but Cairo strongly denies, insisting the Egyptian border is secure.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz also confirmed on Thursday, during a conference of regional council leaders in Israel, that his forces will remain in the "Philadelphi Corridor" at the current stage, without specifying a date for their withdrawal.

This coincided with statements by Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, in which he said that Israel would not withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor except under certain conditions.

During a radio interview, Cohen explained that the Israeli army will not withdraw from the axis until the kidnapped soldiers are returned, Hamas is overthrown, Gaza is emptied of weapons, and Israeli security control over the Strip is restored.

Israel was supposed to begin withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor next Saturday, the last day of the first phase of the agreement, and to complete the withdrawal within 8 days.

The Israeli officials' statements came hours after Hamas returned the remains of four hostages to Israel in exchange for the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, the last exchange scheduled for the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

Talks on the second, more difficult phase of the ceasefire agreement have not yet begun.

Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the corridor could spark a crisis with Hamas and the main mediator, Egypt, at a sensitive moment for the ceasefire, especially since this Israeli threat comes two days after a proposal by Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, made in Washington, that “Egypt would take over the administration of the Gaza Strip for a period of time in exchange for cancelling its foreign debts,” a proposal that angered Cairo, which announced its strong rejection of it.

An Egyptian source in the Cairo operations room monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire told Asharq Al-Awsat, “The Israeli statements have a political purpose, and perhaps they contain a degree of evasion by which Israel is trying to pressure Egypt during the negotiations to move to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, but Egypt has its options and calculations to deal with that. Despite the Israeli evasions, Egypt has completed the file of the detained prisoners in the last few hours in a very professional manner.”

The same source estimates that “Israel will withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor at the specified times, one way or another, and it is only maneuvering tactically to achieve the greatest possible gains during the negotiation process.”

He stressed that "Egypt distinguishes between statements issued officially by the Israeli government in statements, and statements made to the media in order to create momentum that Israel wants to serve it in the negotiation process."

Israeli forces took control of the entire Gaza-Egypt border, including the Philadelphi Corridor, as well as the Rafah crossing, in May 2024, and accused Egypt of not doing enough to prevent weapons from reaching the Gaza Strip through tunnels on its border, a charge Cairo denied.

Israel says that Israeli forces have uncovered many tunnels in the area, while Egypt denies that there are tunnels connecting the two sides, considering that the Israeli statements aim to keep the forces on the axis and spoil the ceasefire agreement and exchange of detainees.

The Philadelphi Corridor is a buffer zone with security specificity, and represents a three-way corridor between Egypt, Israel and the Gaza Strip, extending over a distance of 14 kilometres. Geographically, this border strip extends from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south.

The Egyptian strategic expert, Samir Ragheb, believes that “Israel’s continuation in the axis will not affect, in the slightest, the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. According to the annex to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the axis is a buffer zone that was under Israeli control and guard before the latter withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 in what was known as the ‘disengagement’ plan.”

Ragheb noted in statements to Asharq Al-Awsat that “Israel’s failure to withdraw will lead to tension that will hinder the implementation of the ceasefire, but it will not put pressure on Egypt. Israel is using a tactic to make Egypt a party instead of a mediator, while Egypt is dealing calmly, because it is not a party and wants to end the conflict completely, and therefore it will not respond to these provocations.”

He stressed that Egypt "is sponsoring the Palestinian request for Israel to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor and all Palestinian territory, and is working on this all the time and is achieving tangible progress towards completing the implementation of the ceasefire."

It is worth noting that as part of the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel signed an agreement with Egypt allowing the presence of an Egyptian border guard force of 750 personnel to combat smuggling and militants in the border area.

As for control of the Palestinian side of the axis, it was handed over at that time to the Palestinian Authority, until the Hamas movement took over the administration of the Strip in 2007.

The head of the Egyptian Center for Thought and Strategic Studies, Brigadier General Khaled Okasha, agrees that “Israel is maneuvering with the story of the Philadelphi Corridor in order to obstruct the transition to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.”

Okasha told Asharq Al-Awsat that these Israeli maneuvers come amid conflicting American positions. While US President Donald Trump says that moving to the second phase of the agreement is an Israeli will, Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is pushing for moving to the second phase.

Okasha concluded that the problems of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement are great, but the mediators, led by Egypt, are capable of dismantling those problems as they did before, and Israel will withdraw, not only from Philadelphia, but from the entire Gaza Strip, according to what the agreement stipulates.