Cairo said, yesterday evening, Monday, that any Israeli move towards occupying the Salah al-Din axis (Philadelphia axis) in the Gaza Strip will lead to a serious and serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations.
A statement issued by the head of the official Egyptian Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, explained that the recent period witnessed several statements by Israeli officials, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “containing false claims and accusations.”
Rashwan pointed out that these claims and claims include the existence of smuggling operations of weapons, explosives, ammunition and their components into the Gaza Strip from Egyptian territory through several methods, including tunnels that these statements claimed exist between both sides of the border.
The Egyptian official called on Tel Aviv to conduct internal investigations, saying: The Israeli government must conduct serious investigations within its army, state agencies, and sectors of society, to search for those truly involved in smuggling weapons to the Gaza Strip.
He added that Israel’s continued marketing of these lies is an attempt to create legitimacy for its attempt to occupy the Philadelphia axis, in the Gaza Strip along the border with Egypt, in violation of the security agreements and protocols signed between it and Egypt.
He continued: Here it must be strictly emphasized that any Israeli move in this direction will lead to a serious and serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations. Egypt, in addition to being a country that respects its international obligations, is capable of defending its interests and sovereignty over its land and borders.
The head of the Egyptian Information Service stressed that his country’s borders will not be mortgaged to a group of extremist Israeli leaders who seek to drag the region into a state of conflict and instability, as he put it.
He continued: This Egyptian red line (not touching the Philadelphia Corridor) joins the previous one, which Egypt has repeatedly declared, which is the categorical rejection of forcibly or voluntarily displacing our Palestinian brothers to Sinai, which we will not allow Israel to cross.
Rashwan stressed that the false Israeli allegations do not serve the peace treaty (signed in 1979), which Egypt respects.
The official Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that official officials informed Egypt – last week – that they were planning to carry out a military operation in the Philadelphia axis area, which is the border area between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.
This operation – if implemented – aims to control what Israel claims are the presence of smuggling tunnels in the region, and Netanyahu stressed that the war will not end without closing the opening in the Philadelphia axis.
On January 10, Israeli Channel 12 (privately) reported that Cairo rejected a request from Tel Aviv for Israel to secure the Philadelphia border area between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
The Philadelphia Axis, also called the Salah al-Din Axis, is within a buffer zone under the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in 1979. Its width does not exceed hundreds of meters, and extends 14.5 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kerem Shalom crossing.
