The retreat of the Zionists from “Philadelphia” and “Netsarim”; The big “Bibi” scandal in Gaza

Mehr News, International group: Gaza war that from It started on the 7th of October 2023, now after about 15 months there is a ceasefire. One of the most important issues of the agreement between Hamas and Tel Aviv is the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Philadelphia and Netsarim crossings, which are located on the border of Gaza and the occupied territories.

Philadelphia Crossing

The Philadelphia Corridor is a strip about 9 miles (14 km) long and 100 meters wide along the Gaza-Egypt border at the Rafah crossing. After the withdrawal of the Zionists from Gaza, in 2005, this area was designated as a civilian border zone, which extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kerem Shalom crossing. According to the 1979 agreement, Tel Aviv was allowed to deploy limited armed forces including four infantry battalions, military installations and field fortifications along with UN observers in this corridor. The declared goal of these forces was to prevent weapons from entering Gaza through Egypt. After the withdrawal of the occupying regime from Gaza in 2005, this corridor came under the control of Egypt and the self-governing organizations.

Egyptians refer to this area as Saladin Corridor. In 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza, the joint administration of this area ended. Three months after the start of the recent war in Gaza, in January 2024, Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the occupying regime, while announcing the re-occupation of this area, said that “the control of Philadelphia must be in our hands. “Any other arrangement cannot guarantee the demilitarization we want.” Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphia corridor in May 2023. Some time later, the Zionists also captured the Palestinian part of this corridor.

Netsarim Corridor

The Netsarim Corridor is 6 kilometers long and passes through the middle of Gaza. This corridor was created by the Zionist army during the recent war and extends from the border of the occupied territories with Gaza City to the Mediterranean Sea. The name of this corridor is taken from Netsarim, one of the illegal Zionist settlements. Some believe that this designation indicates that Tel Aviv’s extremist leaders are seeking to re-establish illegal settlements in the area. The Zionists have established several military bases in this corridor, which they use to monitor and control the Palestinians between the north and south of Gaza.

The Zionist army designated the two access points of this corridor as prohibited areas and threatened the people who entered the area around Salah al-Din road in the center of Gaza and Al-Rashid coastal highway. will target. This area is a transit point for Palestinian civilian refugees. The data recently published by Haaretz newspaper showed that the Zionist forces have repeatedly killed Palestinians in this axis without any confirmation of their identity and affiliation.

The approach of the Zionist regime towards the corridors

After the occupation of these two corridors, Netanyahu announced that the regime will maintain military control of both corridors and the Rafah crossing, and these demands will be included in the ceasefire negotiations. also adds He said: “(The) Israeli regime will not leave the Philadelphia corridor and Netsarim axis under any circumstances.”

However, according to the recent ceasefire agreement, the forces of the Zionist regime will start withdrawing from Gaza from the 22nd day of the ceasefire. Based on this, the Zionists will withdraw from the center of the Gaza Strip, especially from the Netsarim axis, to an area near the border, and completely remove the military facilities. The army of the occupying regime has announced that it will withdraw most of its forces in stages and only a small number of forces will remain in this area. Finally, after the release of the last prisoner on the 42nd day of the ceasefire, the occupiers will leave the Philadelphia axis within 50 days after completing the withdrawal. This retreat primarily includes Legion 99 It is the Zionist army that is currently stationed in this axis.

What defeats did the Zionists suffer in the ceasefire agreement?

1- The most important failure of Tel Aviv is its failure in the occupation policy of Gaza. Dr. Sami Al-Erian, director of the Center for Islam and World Affairs at Zaim University in Istanbul, believes that the Zionists have been trying to take control of Gaza without occupying all its parts, but they did not succeed. The Zionists pledged to withdraw from the Philadelphia and Netsarim crossings, which is the biggest scandal for the Prime Minister of the Zionist regime; Because he said that he will not leave these two axes.

2- Another failure of Tel Aviv is the failure to “strategy of continuous military pressure until complete victory”. From the beginning of the war and especially after October 2024, the leaders of the occupying regime clearly stated that their efforts are based on creating “continuous military pressure until complete victory”.

3- Another failure of the Zionist regime was in separating the northern and southern parts of Gaza from each other. In fact, in the last months of the war, Tel Aviv did its best to force Hamas to surrender, especially by besieging northern Gaza and starving the remaining people. The Zionist army also bombarded the Jabalia refugee camp many times and increased its attacks on Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun. Despite all this, the Zionists failed in realizing this goal.

Result

One ​​of the important clauses of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and the Zionist regime is related to the withdrawal of the occupiers from the Philadelphia corridor on the border of Rafah and the Netsarim axis, which divides Gaza into two parts, the north and the south. divides Netanyahu, who insisted on stabilizing the position of the Zionists in these areas in the previous ceasefire negotiations and even opposed the UN resolution to withdraw from Gaza, has agreed to this issue in the new agreement. The realization of the withdrawal from these two axes will impose the most important failures on this regime, among which we can mention the failure in occupying Gaza, the failure in the strategy of complete victory over Hamas, and the failure in separating the north and south of Gaza from each other. .