Egypt and Israel locked in a battle of wills over Gaza border control

The outcome of this battle could define the future relationship between the two countries, which have had a peace treaty in place since 1979.

EPA

Displaced Palestinian children play near the Palestinian-Egyptian border in Rafah camp, southern Gaza Strip, January 29.

Egypt and Israel locked in a battle of wills over Gaza border control

Amr Emam

last update on 09 Feb 2024

There is growing tension between Egypt and Israel as the latter continues to wage its brutal military assault and starvation campaign on the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza, raising the spectre of a refugee surge into the Sinai.

How long the tension between Egypt and Israel lasts depends on which side will cave in first. The outcome of this battle of wills could define the future relationship between the two countries, which have had a peace treaty in place since 1979.

But in the current volatile climate, the mounting tension between the countries is palpable. On his part, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had reportedly rejected a phone call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On their part, Israeli politicians have ramped up criticism of Cairo over what they view as a lack of cooperation from Egypt on border security between Egypt's Sinai and the Gaza Strip.

Egypt accuses Israel of outright lying about several key points of contention, such as allowing crucial aid into Gaza and arms smuggling into the enclave.

Fiery dispute

The two sides are now locked in a fiery dispute over Israel's plan to occupy the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometre stretch of land that extends from the Mediterranean to Gaza's border with Israel, separating the Palestinian territory from Egypt.

Egypt oversees security in the corridor on the Egyptian side in the light of a 2005 agreement with Israel. The same agreement allowed the Palestinian Authority to control the area on Gaza's side before the 2007 takeover of the coastal enclave by Hamas.

A picture taken from a position in southern Israel along the border with the Gaza Strip on January 18, 2024, shows Israeli army vehicles driving on a road in Gaza amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

The agreement, signed after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, allows Egypt to deploy 750 border guards on its side of the border, whose mission is to prevent infiltrations and smuggling.

Nevertheless, with Israel tightening the noose around Gaza and Hamas maintaining rocket attacks on Israel, questions arise about where the Palestinian group gets its arms supply from.

Some Israeli cabinet members, including Netanyahu, believe this supply comes from Egypt through smuggling tunnels on the border with Gaza.

On 13 January, Netanyahu described Gaza's southern border with Egypt as a "hole" that must be closed.

Outraged over the accusations, Egypt put out a statement on 22 January, suggesting the smuggling of arms to Gaza came from Israel.

Observers in Cairo believe that by planning to occupy the Philadelphi Corridor, Israel wants to prepare for the next stage of its onslaught on Gaza: closing in on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

"The corridor should be a neutral area on the border between Egypt and Gaza," Saeed al-Zoghbi, a political science professor at Suez Canal University, told Al Majalla.

"By controlling this area, Israel will also control whatever Egypt can enter into Gaza in the future, which violates Egyptian sovereignty," he added.

How long the tension between Egypt and Israel lasts depends on which side will cave in first.

Hard-won gains

In the past decade, Egypt invested heavily in Sinai's security in terms of lives and money.

It has destroyed hundreds of smuggling tunnels between Sinai and Gaza as part of its fight against a branch of the Islamic State (IS) in the north-eastern Egyptian territory.IS terrorists used the same tunnels to get a fresh supply of recruits and arms from Gaza.

Thousands of Egyptian policemen and army troops were killed fighting IS terrorists, adding a valuable human dimension to Egypt's struggle to make Sinai — a 60,000-square kilometre territory that also shares borders with Israel — terror-free.

The belief in Cairo is that Israel's control of Sinai's border with Gaza on the Palestinian territory's side will have implications for security in Sinai.

Egypt is now the only entry and exit point to and from Gaza, as Israel maintains its crippling blockade on the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli siege on Gaza gives Egypt influence over people and groups in this part of Palestine, especially with Egypt's two border points with Gaza remaining open for the entry and exit of people and goods most of the time.

However, Israeli control over Egypt's border with Gaza would significantly reduce Egypt's influence over the enclave and, in turn, its sway in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — a central issue in the Middle East today.

A member of the military police stands guard as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visits the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Displacement fears

Egypt's anger over Israel's desire to control the Philadelphi Corridor compounds Egyptian fears of Israeli plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

Israel has not hid its desire to push Gaza's population of 2.3 million Palestinians into the Sinai since the beginning of its operation on the Palestinian territory in early October.

Egypt made it clear on numerous occasions that it would not tolerate such a scenario. Its position is rooted in fears that clearing Gaza of its population will kill Palestinian statehood dreams.

El-Sisi warned previously that forcing Palestinians out of Gaza would be followed by a similar measure against the residents of the occupied West Bank to push them into Jordan.

"This will produce a situation where there will be a people who do not have a state," the Egyptian leader said on 18 October at a press briefing with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Cairo.

However, this is only one reason why Egypt is against the displacement of the people of Gaza. Cairo doesn't want any threats to its territorial integrity.

Such threats fuelled three wars between Egypt and Israel, including the 1973 war for the liberation of Sinai from Israeli occupation.

Israeli control over Egypt's border with Gaza would significantly reduce Cairo's influence over the enclave and, in turn, its sway in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Shocked and appalled

Egypt is also shocked and appalled at the brutal nature of the Israeli response to Hamas's 7 October attacks in Israel.

Like the Egyptian people, officials are outraged at the mass slaughter of more than 27,000 Palestinians and the near-total destruction of Gaza's infrastructure. El-Sisi himself has issued numerous statements expressing condemnation of Israel's brutality and its restriction of vital humanitarian aid into the enclave.

Egyptians worry that a terrified and starving Palestinian population will storm the border as a last resort to save their lives and the lives of their children.

Lina Jaradat

"Israel continues its campaign to force the people of Gaza to flee to Egypt, despite Egyptian and international rejection of this," Akram Badr Eddin, a political science professor at Cairo University, told Al Majalla.

Despite the anger over Israel's intentions and actions in Gaza, a direct confrontation between Cairo and Tel Aviv is not expected, as the two sides are still keen to preserve their 1979 peace treaty.

Israel and Egypt intimately cooperate on security and intelligence matters and are part of an OPEC-like grouping of natural gas producers and consumers in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Egypt — a strong backer of Palestinian statehood rights — also needs to maintain ties and leverage with Tel Aviv to assist in its continuous pursuit of these rights.

An Israeli takeover of Philadelphi will be an outright breach of a 2005 agreement between the two countries and also infringe on the spirit of the 1979 peace treaty, which calls for a demilitarised zone along Sinai's northern border with Israel and the Gaza Strip.

If it happens, the breach could prompt Egypt to increase its troop deployment along Sinai's northern border, which is not allowed under the current treaty.

However, Egypt could likely bide its time as senior government officials in Cairo believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's days are numbered.

His extreme right-wing government is increasingly appearing to the world as a bunch of reckless extremists who are plunging the region into a widening war that is in no one's interest.

Should there be a political shakeup in Israel, with a more centrist government assuming power, or if the current government demonstrates that it is ready to cooperate and restore regional calm, relations between the two countries could go back to normal.

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