As the Israeli army announced it had seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, questions have been raised about whether Israel has violated key agreements with Egypt and what level of coordination might have taken place with Cairo.
Israel’s control of the Rafah crossing may present a threat to a September 2005 agreement with Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Accord. The agreement authorised Egypt to deploy 750 border guards to patrol the border along the Philadelphi Corridor: a 14-km long, 100-metre-wide demilitarised buffer zone along the entire border between Gaza and Egypt.
Per the accord, the Egyptian force would not be deployed for military purposes and would not change the status of the route as a demilitarised buffer zone as stipulated in the 1979 peace agreement. However, its designated purpose was for combating terrorism, smuggling and infiltration across the border.
In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel must reoccupy the corridor. “The Philadelphi Corridor – or to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point [of Gaza] – must be in our hands,” he said.
“It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek.”
In response, the Egyptian government said reoccupation of the corridor would violate the peace treaty.
‘It is doubtful that the Egyptians would have greenlighted this’
– Joost Hiltermann, analyst
The Philadelphi Accord stipulated that Egypt and Israel would establish a coordination and liaison system for real-time exchange of intelligence between the two sides.
It is unclear whether any coordination took place prior to Tuesday’s occupation of the crossing, which essentially gives Israel control of the Philadelphi Corridor.
“Israel occupying Rafah means occupying the Gaza side of the Philadelphi Corridor, which would be a violation of the 2005 addendum to the 1979 peace treaty,” International Crisis Group analyst Joost Hiltermann told Middle East Eye.
“It is doubtful that the Egyptians would have greenlighted this.”
An Egyptian military source said that Egypt has not authorised the Rafah crossing operation.
“There is no operational coordination regarding the occupation of Rafah,” the source said on condition of anonymity. “However, officials from the Egyptian and Israeli military maintain constant contact to ensure the strategic security of both sides.”
The source added that Cairo views the invasion of Rafah crossing as a “serious escalation but not a surprise”.
“This military action jeopardises the entry of aid to one million Palestinians, as the Rafah crossing is the safest and most well-structured route for food and water delivery to Gaza,” the source told MEE.
Threat to the peace treaty?
The Philadelphi Accord was an expansion of the 1979 Egypt-Israel treaty, which designated four zones in Sinai and Israel as demilitarised.
The Palestinian side of Rafah is not part of that area, since Rafah was under Israeli occupation at the time of the treaty.
The Egyptian side of Rafah falls within Zone C, which only allows for the deployment of a civilian police force armed with light weapons, as well as UN peacekeepers.
Israel has allowed exceptions to this provision over the past decade, however, with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government deploying troops to the area to fight an insurgency.
‘Israel’s approaching the Philadelphi Corridor is a grave risk and an indirect threat to Egypt’
– Major General Ahmed al-Awadi, MP
Egypt has not commented on whether Israel has breached the peace treaty or the 2005 agreement. On Tuesday, the foreign ministry only condemned Israel’s invasion of Rafah as a threat to ceasefire efforts.
The chairman of the parliamentary defence and national security committee, Major General Ahmed al-Awadi, said on Monday that Israel’s occupation of the Rafah crossing and Philadelphi Corridor without Egypt’s consent would be a clear breach of bilateral agreements.
“Israel’s approaching the Philadelphi Corridor is a grave risk and an indirect threat to Egypt, even if it does not advance toward Egyptian territory,” he said.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukri, has previously insisted that the peace treaty with Israel would not be suspended, even after repeated Israeli threats to invade Rafah during the war on Gaza.
Rafah was historically one city until a border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip was created in 1906, splitting Rafah into a Palestinian side controlled by the Ottomans and a British-controlled Egyptian side.
Following the 1967 Middle East war and Israel’s occupation of the Sinai peninsula and the Gaza Strip, Rafah became one city under Israeli control.
The 1979 peace treaty, however, led to Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai and subsequent creation of the Rafah border, again splitting the city into two sides, roughly along the 1906 boundary.
Israel withdrew its forces and about 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but as it remained in control of the territory it continues to occupy the enclave under international law.
When it withdrew from Gaza, Israel jointly controlled the Rafah crossing under the Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA) with the Palestinian Authority.
The AMA remained in effect until it was suspended by Israel in 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza from its rival Palestinian faction Fatah and became the de facto ruler there.
Between then and Tuesday, the Rafah border crossing has been under the joint control of Egypt and Hamas authorities in Gaza.
*Shahenda Naguib contributed to this report from Cairo.
