05/29/2024

Aid Groups Say Israel’s Rafah Assault Upends Food and Relief Operations

Nearly 1 million people have fled Rafah in the past three weeks

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday that it had gained "tactical control over the Philadelphi corridor," a boundary that separates Gaza and Egypt. The military gain represents a major ambition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had repeatedly staked it out as an aim for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The IDF does not have “boots on the ground” throughout the corridor, an IDF official told reporters, but added that its control means Israel can “cut off” Hamas supplies via underground tunnels in the corridor.

The corridor is a buffer zone and a no man’s land approximately nine miles long and several hundred yards wide that stretches from the southernmost tip of Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has not had a troop presence along the border since 2005, when the country withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip. The gain may complicate political relations with Cairo and risk undermining a landmark 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty — an accord that has led to a half-century of coexistence.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.