The Philadelphia axis is a buffer strip separating the Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. It extends from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south. It is disputed by three forces, the Palestinian resistance movement (Hamas), Egypt and the occupying power. The Rafah crossing, which is Gazans’ main access to the outside world, was built there.
This axis emerged following the 1979 Camp David Treaty between Egypt and Israel. The latter remained in control of it until 2005 (the disengagement plan), when it was handed over to the Palestinian Authority, which was granted supervision of border areas and crossings with the presence of international observers. However, the disengagement plan stipulated that the occupying power would maintain a military presence on this axis in order to provide it with security protection.
However, in 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and the axis came under its control, so the occupation state imposed a suffocating siege on the Strip, which prompted the residents of Gaza to supply supplies by crossing this axis, and here Egypt imposed its control over it. The people of Gaza then resorted to digging tunnels to complete the process of providing for the necessities of life that were not available due to the blockade.
Today, in its war on Gaza 2023-2024, the occupying power’s warplanes targeted the Philadelphia axis and bombed it strongly. On December 13, 2023, statements by Benjamin Netanyahu about his country’s intention to control the Axis were leaked.
”Without controlling the Philadelphia axis, we cannot eliminate Hamas,” he said. The issue of this area has become central to other parts of the Government. Dan Harrell, a former commander of the Israeli army’s Southern Command, made a dangerous statement: “Whoever wants to control what is happening in the Gaza Strip in terms of armaments, the Philadelphia axis must be controlled.” However, some did not support the idea of occupying and controlling it, including Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war council.
This chaos and confusion in decisions is only due to the abject failure of the army.
After bombing the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip and committing hundreds of massacres that violated the so-called international and humanitarian norms without achieving any victory in achieving the war goals invoked by Netanyahu, comes the role of this dividing strip (the Philadelphia axis) under the pretext that the tunnels that lie under it will enable the Palestinian resistance to rehabilitate itself militarily through arms smuggling.