From Rafah to Cairo; Why is Israel trying to control the Egyptian-Gaza border strip?

Mehr News Agency, International Group: Approving the first phase of the Zionist attack on East Rafah and at the same time The acceptance of the proposed Doha-Cairo plan by the Hamas movement has made the field equations in the Gaza strip more complicated. During the last two weeks, the Hamas negotiating team was present in Doha and Cairo and sought to reach a solution to stop the war, exchange prisoners and rebuild the Gaza strip, but due to the Israeli side’s insistence on the “red line” of not providing a guarantee for the end of the war, the ceasefire negotiations It failed. Some analysts believe that the recent operation shows the Israeli army’s plan to conquer Rafah gradually and “trench by trench” without arousing sensitivities in public opinion. Another group, rejecting this opinion, believes that Israel’s “limited operations” in Rafah are aimed at increasing the bargaining power of the Israeli team in the Doha-Cairo negotiations.

During the last eight months, the officials of Netanyahu’s government repeatedly accused Cairo and the Hamas movement and claimed that the resistance groups used hundreds of tunnels to transfer weapons from the Sahara. Sinai to the Gaza Strip. Despite the rejection of this claim by the Egyptian authorities, the radical members of Netanyahu’s cabinet wanted to completely occupy this area and take control of the border areas. The most important axis of conflict in this campaign is the 14 km (8.7 mi) long Philadelphia axis. Previously, the officials of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government had repeatedly warned their counterparts in Tel Aviv that the start of military operations in Rafah and the forced migration of residents to the Sinai desert means that Israel is crossing Egypt’s “red lines”. Of course, it goes without saying that since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in the east of Rafah, Cairo authorities have not commented on Tel Aviv’s crossing of Cairo’s red line and preferred to be content with verbally condemning the operation. This led to widespread protests against Cairo in cyberspace, to the point where some declared: “Egypt’s territorial integrity was violated by Israel’s entry into the Rafah crossing. What is Cairo’s reaction?”

The most important excuse of the Zionist regime for starting military operations in the east of Rafah is the presence of Hamas military battalions in this area. Only hours after the start of the Al-Aqsa storm operation, the Zionist regime’s war cabinet unveiled three conditions: “destruction of all military-political infrastructure of Hamas”, “liberation of prisoners” and “change in the geopolitics of Gaza”. During the last 215 days, the main agenda of Israel’s military operations throughout Gaza has been to achieve the above goals. The Zionist regime’s army hopes to take a serious step towards the release of prisoners by moving to the east of Rafah while finding the prisoners, the headquarters and the tunnels of Hamas. Also, the Zionists hope to find a sign from the field-intelligence leaders of Hamas, Mohammad Zaif and Yahya Sanwar.

On the morning of Tuesday, May 7th, the 401st Armored Brigade of the Israeli Army entered the east of Rafah. This crossing is located about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the Palestine-Egypt border and extends to the axis of Philadelphia. Although Israel’s occupation of this border area is a clear violation of the Camp David Agreement, sources close to Netanyahu’s cabinet claimed that this operation took place in coordination between Tel Aviv and Cairo, and the Israeli army forces will withdraw from this area after the operation is over. According to “The Times of Israel”, Israeli army officials announced that more than 100 Hamas-affiliated centers were targeted, 3 tunnels were discovered, and 20 Palestinian mujahids were martyred. Palestinian sources report the martyrdom of 27 people, especially 8 children in East Rafah.

At the same time as the start of the Israeli military operation in Rafah, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political office, in a phone call with the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Qatar, announced the acceptance of the ceasefire offer in Gaza. gave The initiative of Hamas in the “Zero Hour” of the Zionist regime’s attack on East Rafah has caused the members of the war cabinet in Israel to face intensifying internal and international pressures and not be able to make a definitive decision to return to the negotiating table or continue the war. Over the past day and night, the level of pressure from the families of Israeli prisoners and mediating actors has increased so much that Tel Aviv is forced to send a technical team to Cairo.

Some Hebrew sources believe that the United States and the Arab countries knew about the possibility of accepting the modified offer to the Palestinian side, but did not share this issue with Tel Aviv. Apparently, the Israeli authorities did not know about the modification of the proposal presented to Hamas. This new proposal was presented to the Palestinian side in the last week of negotiations, and there was no discussion about it before. In this Egyptian initiative, Cairo is introduced as the guarantor of a permanent ceasefire between the resistance and Israel. In other words, the Hamas movement has agreed to Egypt’s proposal, not the Israeli side! After this matter was published in the media, the Israeli side announced that Egypt’s proposed plan does not meet Tel Aviv’s demands, and then the regime army will continue its operations in the east of Rafah. It is interesting to note that apparently William Burns and the American team present in these negotiations were aware of the details of this new proposal, but did not inform the Israeli side about its details.

Bahre Sakhan

Although Israeli tanks and fighters have started attacking the east of Rafah and apparently occupied the Rafah-Philadelphia border strip, it seems that these actions are more than for The complete occupation of southern Gaza is a tactical move aimed at strengthening the position of the Israeli side in the Doha-Cairo negotiations. Only hours after the release of pictures of Israeli armored vehicles entering the Philadelphia axis and violating the Camp David agreement, Hebrew sources announced that the Zionist regime has started a limited operation in Rafah and currently has no intention of a major attack on this area. It seems that the Israeli authorities, after failing to impose their conditions on the Palestinian side, are now looking to start a new psychological operation and weaken the field position of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, in order to gain more points at the table of political negotiations from the Hamas movement and other actors obtain mediation.