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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel must maintain a military presence in the corridor, also known as the Salah al-Din axis, which Hamas has rejected.
Set up as a buffer zone in accordance with the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, it aimed to control movement in and out of Gaza and prevent arms smuggling between the Egyptian Sinai and the Palestinian enclave.
Israel controlled the area until it withdrew from Gaza in 2005, prior to which Israel and Egypt signed the Philadelphi Accord, which allowed Egypt to send hundreds of border guards to patrol the corridor’s borders.
It still includes the key Rafah border crossing, long considered a lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza as it allows crucial supplies of food, medicine and other aid to get into the strip and enables people to move in and out of the enclave.
But Egypt shuttered the crossing to most shortly after the start of the war last year, and since Israel seized control of the Gaza side in May, it has remained closed.
The Israeli military said in a statement Thursday that it had “dismantled” Hamas’ brigade in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah and killed more than 2,000 of its fighters in the process. It added that it had destroyed around 8 miles of “underground tunnel routes” used by the militant group and was continuing to demolish more of them.
But asked Friday whether Israel would leave the city, which had a prewar population of around 250,000, Hagari said Israel “had several plans for the war,” but the decision would be made by the Israeli government.
The IDF has previously re-entered parts of Gaza after Hamas regrouped in areas it said it had cleared.
After Israel sealed off much of northern Gaza shortly after the start of the war, bloody fighting erupted in the refugee camps of Jabaliya, Shejaiya and Gaza City earlier this year, underlining the difficulties Netanyahu faces in meeting his promise to “crush” the militant group.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas after militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in a cross-border assault on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. The death toll in Gaza in Israel’s retaliatory offensive since then has reached more than 41,000, according to health officials in the enclave.
“The first mission, and main mission, besides the defeat of Hamas, is to bring back the hostages in all means, back home,” Hagari said.
