Pearls and Irritations

Why won’t there be a long term ceasefire in Gaza any day soon? In spite of the murder of 16,500 children, the most in any modern day conflict, and the injury of 94,000 people, 70 per cent of whom are women and children, it does not end. Add to this horrific loss of human life, the starvation of all the residents, the complete destruction of vast swathes of infrastructure, and the deliberate obstruction and destruction of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Firstly, the US continues to supply arms and money to Israel; secondly, the international community, including Australia, maintains its inhumane silence; thirdly, and the most important reason is because, as Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear, Israel will not withdraw from the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors in Gaza.

Netanyahu has stated repeatedly that these corridors will stay under Israeli military control and that “Israel will not under any circumstances leave the Philadelphi corridor nor the Netzarim axis… these are strategic principles, both militarily and politically”. Of course, these conditions did not appear in President Joe Biden’s nor Antony Blinken’s speech on 31 May nor in the UN Security Council resolution of 10 June. But this is more than a deliberate ploy to scuttle the peace talks.

The Netzarim corridor is a four-kilometre-wide strip of land to the north of Gaza, cutting across the width of the Strip from Israel in the east to the ocean in the west, effectively cutting the strip in two and separating the northern and southern areas. This corridor, now substantially upgraded by Israeli military engineers, cuts across Gaza’s two main north-south roads, Salah al-Din Road in the middle of Gaza, and the al-Rashid road along the coast enabling, as the IDF boasts, the movement of troops across the Strip in seven minutes.

Israel bombed and cleared hundreds of acres along the corridor, demolishing large areas of agricultural land as well as the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, a university and the Palace of Justice which housed the Gaza high courts. A total of 750 buildings have been completely destroyed and the area cleared. “In all, the area cleared around the corridor and the pier encompasses at least four square miles, or a little more than 2,500 acres, though extensive damage to buildings and agricultural land extends farther”, according to the analysis by Ben-Nun from Hebrew University. “Everything is demolished along the way,” he said. “Completely demolished.”

The area is now a military zone used to station and move troops apparently entrenching its military presence in this corridor. Satellite imagery also appears to show a series of long buildings that could be used for intake hallways to control people moving across Gaza from the south that borders Egypt, and the north that borders Israel. Control of this corridor means Israel will effectively be able to control all aspects of life in Gaza. This includes the return of people to their bombed-out homes and lands in the north, control of humanitarian aid to the north and the south, and all, if any, post-conflict reconstruction. Already Israel continues to impede the flow of humanitarian aid. “You’re waiting for three to four hours, you can be sent back, you can be arrested,” Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, deputy medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said, of aid trucks trying to traverse the corridor.

The Philadelphi corridor, also called the Salah Al-Din Axis, is a 14-kilometre long and 100-metre-wide strip of land that separates Gaza and Egypt. It runs from the Mediterranean coast to the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing where the borders of Egypt, the Gaza Strip and Israel meet. It is also where the city of Rafah and the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is located and has been critical to Gaza’s economy, with 40% of imports coming through Rafah. Until May this year, it was Gaza’s only outlet to the outside world not controlled by Israel. It has long been a contentious corridor. This corridor was named after the Israeli demilitarised zone prior to the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

As part of those Camp David Peace Accords, it was agreed that a small joint Israeli-Egyptian military force could control this corridor. The intention was to prevent smuggling and the movement of weapons. Following the democratic and internationally supervised elections of 2006, which Hamas won, Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip and an additional accord was signed between Egypt and Israel, the Philadelphi Accord, permitting a small number of Egyptian soldiers to monitor the corridor. After this election, Israel imposed a complete land, air and sea blockade on Gaza with the exception of the border buffer zone with Egypt. With an entire blockade enforced by Israel and limited supplies permitted via the Israeli Erez crossing in the north, Palestinians built tunnels to ease economic pressure and meet their daily needs. In addition, weapons and explosives were also smuggled via these tunnels. Under Israel’s urging, Egypt several times destroyed some 2,000 tunnels in 2011 and 2015 and Israel bombed these sites as well.

After 7 October 2023, Netanyahu made it clear this corridor would be taken back and the IDF did so on 7 May, destroying the Rafah crossing along with a large part of the city of Rafah and expelling most of its residents. The US’ alleged “red lines” made no difference as it failed to enforce its threat. In taking back the Philadelphi corridor, Israel also violated the terms of the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords with Egypt, undermining Egypt’s role and influence on the Gaza-Palestine issue. This invasion infuriated Egypt and caused outrage in the Egyptian media. It is one of the reasons for Egypt’s support of the South African case at the ICJ. But Egypt is also beholden to the US as it receives $1.3 billion in military assistance and $250 million in economic assistance from Washington eash year. The blockade also resulted in a humanitarian disaster for more than 1,000 people who died as they could not exit Gaza for specialised treatment and it is believed now that at least 25,000 sick and wounded Palestinians need to leave Gaza for urgent treatment.

The Philadelphi corridor remains a sticking point for Egypt as well as Israel and Hamas in the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange talks. There have been several proposals suggested to overcome these obstacles, including replacing troops on the ground with an underground barrier, electronic monitoring equipment and occasional patrols. Egypt has reportedly agreed to these suggestions if Hamas does also, but so far Israel has not agreed to these conditions. Some reports say Israel is reluctant to keep troops on the ground as they will continue to be targeted by Hamas. So far, Israel has lost 704 officers, and soldiers and 2,206 troops have been wounded, according to an Associated Press report of 16 August.

Dr. Sami Al-Arian, director of the Centre for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University, believes Israel is trying to take control of Gaza without actually occupying every part of it. “To do that, it needs to control the borders… controlling the Philadelphi corridor means they actually control all of Gaza, sea and the land,” he says. And Israel’s intention is obvious in the words of Israeli Energy Secretary Eli Cohen: “Everyone is clear that Israel will have security control over the strip, which means the ability to come and carry out an operation at any time and in any place.”

Palestinians see the military entrenchment in both of these corridors as a prelude to a lasting military occupation and the return of Jewish settlements, something definitely called for by the far-right members of the Israeli Parliament. The US, of course, has repeatedly commented that it is against any reoccupation of Gaza or a reduction of its territory. We have seen these US “red lines” ignored before and Australia and most Western governments continue their ignominious silence in the face of the continued violations of the so called “international rules-based order” and all UN conventions that Israel is happily trashing with the impunity that it has long enjoyed.

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