Netanyahu denies reports Palestinian Authority will manage Rafah border crossing

The London-based Asharq Al-Awsat daily reported that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Mossad director David Barnea reached an agreement with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied media reports on Wednesday that an agreement was reached to allow the Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

“The report is incorrect despite efforts by the Palestinian Authority to create a false picture to the effect that it controls the crossing,” Netanyahu’s office said.

“According to the agreement, [Israel] forces are positioned around the crossing and there is no passage without [Israeli] supervision, oversight and advance approval.”

The crossing is currently manned by the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).

“The technical management inside the crossing is being carried out by Gazans not affiliated with Hamas, with security by the Shin Bet, who have been managing civilian services in the Strip, such as electricity, water and sewage, since the start of the war. Their work is supervised by the international EUBAM force,” the statement said, referring to the European Union Border Assistance Mission.

“The only practical involvement of the Palestinian Authority is its stamp on the passports, which according to the existing international arrangement, is the only way Gazans may leave the Strip in order to enter, or be received in, other countries,” the statement added.

The London-based Asharq Al-Awsat daily reported that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Mossad director David Barnea reached an agreement with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad.

The paper also reported that Israel proposed a partial withdrawal of its forces from the Philadelphi corridor. This corridor is a buffer zone that runs the length of the 14-km Gaza-Egypt border.

It was created in 2006 to prevent weapons smuggling after Israel disengaged from the Strip but Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority the following year.

Egypt demands a full Israeli withdrawal from the buffer zone.

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 94 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead.