RUTHFULLY YOURS

Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty said on September 18 that his country will never accept any Israeli security presence at the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. “Abdelatty asserted that Egypt maintains complete opposition to any military presence at the [Rafah border] crossing or the Philadelphi Corridor [between Egypt and the Gaza Strip],” according to Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper.

The Egyptian minister made his remarks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken following a meeting in Cairo. “These remarks echo previous Egyptian statements asserting its rejection of any Israeli presence in the Philadelphi corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border and the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, which has been under Israeli control since May,” Al-Ahram added.

The Egyptians are actually saying that they prefer to have Palestinian terrorists on their border rather than Israel.

The Philadelphi Corridor is a ribbon of land about nine miles in length and 100 meters wide along the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.

After the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, control over the Rafah crossing and Philadelphi Corridor was handed over to Egypt and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The two parties were therefore responsible for preventing smuggling of weapons and other goods from Egyptian territory into the Gaza Strip. Needless to say, Egypt and the PA failed to stop the smuggling activities along the border.

In 2007, the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas staged a coup against the Palestinian Authority and seized full control of the Gaza Strip, including the Gazan side of the border with Egypt. Following this, Hamas and other terror groups increased their smuggling activities through the border and the dozens of tunnels they dug beneath it.

Since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) retook control of the Rafah crossing and Philadelphi Corridor last May, Egypt has been voicing strong opposition to Israel’s presence in these areas. This is the same Egypt that failed to stop the flow of weapons from its territory into the Gaza Strip over the two decades.

According to The Guardian:

“Experts have suggested technological solutions including surveillance and ground sensors could effectively control efforts to rebuild Hamas’s smuggling tunnels. History suggests, however, that a key component is the political will on Cairo’s part to crack down on smuggling on the Egyptian side, which has sometimes been notably absent, creating problems on both sides of the border.”

As Israeli author and journalist Nadav Shragai noted in July 2024:

“For nearly 20 years, Hamas has smuggled enormous quantities of weapons and building materials through and under the Philadelphi Corridor, significantly advancing the construction of underground Gaza – the world’s largest terror city. Anyone who still believes the Egyptians were unaware of this is deluding themselves.

“The Egyptians not only knew, but for years they were complicit – knowingly ignoring the situation, turning a blind eye, and even actively facilitating it. While under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi they have taken some significant action against the tunnels, proposing to involve them now in any arrangement concerning the Philadelphi Corridor and trusting them is not just foolish and grossly irresponsible, but self-deception and public fraud.

“Before el-Sissi, but also during his tenure, cars, motorcycles, clothes, drugs, medicines, alcoholic beverages, and weapons were smuggled through the Philadelphi Corridor over the years, lots of weapons: improved RPG-29 rockets that killed our soldiers in the Iron Swords War, hidden rocket parts, machine guns, mines, and more.

“The tunnels were dug from house basements, orchards, and olive groves. An average tunnel costs about $100,000 to build, with a daily turnover averaging half a million shekels. Egyptian officials and officers pocketed bribes that allowed the weapons highway to continue. And after all this, to say that Egypt didn’t know?

“The very thought of now erasing Egypt’s sins and giving them a role again in overseeing the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah crossing is scandalous. Egypt bears significant responsibility for what happened in Philadelphi over the years, and even those who trust President el-Sissi now cannot guarantee that a new [former Egyptian President] Mohammed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood won’t rise to power in the future, as we saw happen in 2012 presidential elections in Egypt….

“Israel must, therefore, remain in Philadelphi. Neither Egypt, the “bruised reed,” nor other foreign forces, nor cameras – no one will do the job for us there as needed, and it’s time we stop deluding ourselves. Foreign monitoring forces have failed in Lebanon over the years, and they also failed at the Rafah crossing from which European Union monitors fled in 2007.”

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amir Avivi, founder and chairman of Israel’s Defense & Security Forum (IDSF), who previously served as Deputy Commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division, pointed out that when Israel handed Sinai to Egypt in 1982, a narrow space was created between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and received the now well-known name Philadelphi Corridor. “For roughly a decade, Israel controlled the Philadelphi Corridor and the IDF operated freely in the cities of the Gaza Strip,” Avivi wrote recently.

“That arrangement changed in the early 1990s, with the signing of the Oslo Accords. Those agreements stipulated, among other things, that Israel would withdraw from the cities of Gaza and not re-enter. From the moment that Israel left those cities, a large-scale project of tunneling began but because the Philadelphi Corridor was still in our hands, we were able to maintain a certain level of awareness and influence.”

According to Avivi, Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 changed the picture completely:

“Despite many warnings from the security services, the Israeli government chose to withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip and yield control of the Philadelphi Corridor. Expectably, the scope of smuggling there increased exponentially and reached incredible proportions.

“The Egyptian government, newly responsible for the Philadelphi Corridor, looked the other way and permitted copious smuggling from Sinai into Gaza, including weaponry, commercial goods, and even people. It was that smuggling that enabled Hamas to turn into a well-armed terrorist army and thus brought about the disaster of October 7.”

In recent years, Avivi added, smuggling from Egypt into the Gaza Strip has become central to the Gaza economy and key to the strengthening of Hamas.

“Even today the city of Rafah [near the border with Egypt] is full of smugglers, who bribe the Egyptian police and run a business sector with a turnover in the billions.

“The smuggling still continues during wartime, as war materiel and other goods flow from Sinai into Gaza every day. And there is fear that such smuggling is, or will be, accompanied by smuggling in the other direction. Senior Hamas figures are likely to try to escape into Egyptian territory, with hostages, and from there to Iran.”

The Egyptians are apparently worried that Israel’s presence at the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip would deny them the opportunity to continue making a huge profit from bribes. According to an investigation by The Guardian:

“Palestinians desperate to leave Gaza are paying bribes to brokers of up to $10,000 (£7,850) to help them exit the territory through Egypt…

“Very few Palestinians have been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, but those trying to get their names on the list of people permitted to exit daily say they are being asked to pay large ‘coordination fees’ by a network of brokers and couriers with alleged links to the Egyptian intelligence services…

“A network of brokers, based in Cairo, helping Palestinians leave Gaza has operated around the Rafah border for years. But prices have surged since the start of the war, from $500 for each person.

“The Guardian has spoken to a number of people who have been told they would have to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 each to leave the strip, with some launching crowdfunding campaigns to raise the money. Others were told they could leave sooner if they paid more.”

Earlier this year, a report by the website Middle East Eye revealed that an Egyptian businessman with close ties to President el-Sissi and the Egyptian military appears to profit from Gaza’s calamities.

“A company owned by an influential Egyptian businessman and ally of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is making around $2m a day from Palestinians fleeing Israel’s war on Gaza, Middle East Eye can reveal.

“Hala Consulting and Tourism Services, a firm owned by Sinai tribal leader and business tycoon Ibrahim al-Organi, has been charging Palestinians crossing from Gaza’s Rafah to Egypt at least $5,000 per adult and $2,500 for children under 16.

“It has a monopoly on providing transfer services at the Rafah crossing, the only Gaza exit not bordered with Israel and the single route out of the coastal enclave for Palestinians.

“In the past three months alone, the company is estimated to have made a minimum of $118m, or 5.6 billion Egyptian pounds, from desperate Palestinians trying to leave war-torn Gaza.”

As a result of the Egyptians’ failure to stop the smuggling activities at their border with the Gaza Strip, 1,200 Israelis were murdered, with many raped, beheaded, tortured and burned alive, in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Another 240 Israelis were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and “ordinary” Palestinians on that day.

Anyone who believes that the Egyptians would act differently if and when Israel withdraws from the border area must be living on another planet. If the IDF leaves, Hamas will swiftly return to the border, and the Egyptians will continue looking the other way.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. His work is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.