Israel and Egypt are close to reaching an understanding on the issue of controlling the Philadelphi Corridor, Army Radio reported on Thursday morning.

The report follows a recent Wall Street Journal article that said that Israeli-Egyptian ties have grown increasingly fragile since October 7th and ties are now almost at a breaking point. Israel informed Egypt last month that they are planning to carry out a military operation to take control of the Gazan-Egyptian border area. Cairo responded that such a move will severely harm relations between the two countries and flatly denied that any arms were smuggled to Hamas via the Gazan-Egyptian border. One Egyptian politician even said that Cairo will consider such a move by Israel as an “act of war.”

According to the Army Radio report, Israel promised Egypt that it would allow the Gazans in Rafah to evacuate the area before the IDF begin operating there in order to decrease the risk of hordes of Gazan refugees entering Egypt.

It has not yet been decided where Israel will direct the population, with the two options being Khan Younis or the northern Gaza Strip.

Regarding Egypt’s opposition to Israel taking control of the corridor, it was agreed that Israel will have “some influence” over the corridor but will not maintain a permanent physical presence there although it will monitor the crossing via technological means.

A Gulf state has offered to fund the construction of a subterranean wall along the border to prevent smuggling attempts but Egypt has not yet agreed to the plan. Last month, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly asserted that Israel must take control of the Philadelphi Corridor to ensure Israel’s security, suggested that the US fund a subterranean wall.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)