Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi
IDSF, Mar. 6, 2024
“As mentioned, both the history of Rafah and its current situation show that if Hamas is to be defeated as a governing body, the IDF must control the Philadelphi Corridor, Israel must have full authority over the entry of all goods into Gazan territory, and there must be a ground operation in Rafah.”
The retreat from Rafah:
The Philadelphia Corridor and the start of the Tunnel Era
The Philadelphia Corridor stretches for 14 kilometres, with a width of only 100 meters. Despite its small area, the Corridor was one of the central factors enabling Hamas to acquire strength and become a terrorist army, and it is also the key to Israeli victory in the war of Iron Swords.
An understanding of what the Philadelphi Corridor is, and how it is related to control over Rafah, requires an understanding of the Rafah district’s history in the first place, which means going back to 1906. In that year the British were ruling Egypt and increased its territory at the expense of the Gaza Strip. In an agreement between the British and the Ottoman Empire, which was ruling the Land of Israel, the Egyptian border was defined as passing through the city of Rafah — putting half of the city under British rule and the other half under Ottoman rule. Some years later, the British conquered the Land of Israel as well and took over the entire Gaza Strip, so that the border arranged with the Ottoman Empire lost its relevance.
The 1906 border regained importance when Israel signed its peace treaty with Egypt in 1979. That treaty stipulated that the border between Israel and Egypt would be the same as the historic border marked by the British, so that once more Rafah was divided — into Gazan Rafah and Egyptian Rafah. In 1982, when Israel handed Sinai to Egypt under the treaty, a narrow space was created between Gaza and Egypt and received the now well-known name “the Philadelphi Corridor.”
