Israel continues to examine alternatives for placing Israeli security forces on the Philadelphi route on the Egyptian side, following Egyptian opposition. During their visit to Egypt this week, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar and Head of the Intelligence Directorate Major General Aharon Haliva discussed the new Israeli proposal in the Egyptian intelligence headquarters in Cairo. Meanwhile, Israel intends to secure Arab funding to build a border which would prevent smuggling from the Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip.
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Instead of placing Israeli troops in Egypt, the alternative proposal is to place "technological aids" above the Philadelphi route on the Israeli side, which will detect Palestinian presence or attempts to approach the axis in an effort to move to Sinai or to smuggle weapons and military equipment into Gaza, through underground tunnels. According to the proposal, 750 Egyptian policemen will operate on the Egyptian side. At the same time, Israel held talks with one of the Gulf countries, attempting to convince them to finance the construction of an underground fence that would lead to a complete separation between Gaza and Egypt, in order to thwart smuggling.
During the talks, Israel clarified that it guarantees not to carry out, for the time being, military operations in Rafah, due to the presence of approximately one million Palestinian refugees who were forced to leave the north and center of the strip and move to the Rafah area. A senior Egyptian official clarified that Israel has also decided to immediately stop publishing statements regarding the transfer of Gaza residents to the Sinai area or to the canal cities in Egypt.
On Thursday, Israeli officials estimated that Israel and Egypt were "approaching an agreement" on the issues of Rafah and the Philadelphi route. Following the discussions with Egyptian intelligence, Israel told senior American officials that there would be an "Israeli presence" in the Philadelphi route area. During the visit, senior Israeli officials sent the Egyptian intelligence an urgent request to conduct depth tests, which would find out if there are any underground tunnels left in the Egypt-Sinai border area. The Egyptian President and the top officials of the Egyptian defense establishment responded: "We blocked all the tunnels."
At the moment it remains unclear whether Egypt will agree to the construction of underground wall financed by a third party Arab country. In any case, according to an Egyptian official, it is not a plan that is expected to be approved in the coming days, "until a thorough planning is done at the top of Egypt's security intelligence."