Egypt on Sunday re-stressed that the Israeli forces have to pull out from Salaheddin (Philadelphia) corridor on the Palestinian side of the border and the Rafah border crossing.
In statements aired by the Egyptian official news agency (MENA), a high-level source reiterated that Egypt insists on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the corridor and the crossing.
The Egyptian source denied Israeli media reports about Egyptian agreements with Israel regarding the corridor.
The source argued that all allegations about the corridor come within the framework of the Israeli efforts to cover its ongoing military failure in the Gaza Strip.
The 14-kilometre-long and 100-metre-wide Salaheddin corridor is a buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border guaranteed by the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. The corridor extends from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Karm Abu Salem border crossing in the south.
The Israeli Hebrew-speaking Kikar website reported recently that Israel has expressed readiness to withdraw from the
Philadelphia corridor in return for Egypt’s agreeing to install a high-tech electronic surveillance system in corridor to fight arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip.
The source added that Cairo also stresses the necessity of the Israeli forces withdrawal from the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing so that it can be reopened.
On 7 May, Israel launched its assault on Rafah, taking over the Palestinian side of the crossing between Gaza and Egypt for the first time since Israel pulled out its soldiers and settlers from the strip in 2005.
Egypt has demanded the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from the Palestinian side of the crossing, stressing that only the Egyptians and Palestinians have the right to manage the crossing.
Not a single aid truck has entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing since the incursion of the Israeli forces into the Palestinian side of the crossing.
Source: Kuwait News Agency