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US alternative to Rafah invasion: Secure the Gaza-Egypt border – report

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The idea is that stopping arms smuggling through the Egyptian-Gazan border is more crucial to stopping Hamas than destroying its remaining battalions. 

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Biden administration is expected to suggest that Israel can secure the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza as an alternative to an IDF invasion of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

The White House will make the offer to an Israeli delegation headed for Washington to discuss plans for the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, the Times of Israel reported Wednesday.

One of two officials who spoke to the media outlet on conditions of anonymity said that the ability to work with Cairo to terminate once and for all the weapons-smuggling routes into Gaza, whether above or below ground, would be more important than a military incursion in achieving Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas.

The Egyptian-Gaza border is the most porous, as Israel has had a sea blockade in place for years and strictly controls its own land border with the enclave, to ensure that military contraband does not get to Hamas.

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“If Israel smashes into Rafah with all the civilian casualties that doing so would entail, cooperation from Egypt on locking down the [Philadelphi] Corridor will be much more difficult,” the official noted.

Cairo has said in the past that it would not allow Israel to retake control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which Jerusalem gave up when the IDF evacuated every last Jew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Senior Israeli officials have held discussions with their Egyptian counterparts in recent months over how to secure the area so Hamas will not be able to rearm itself as it has after every battle it has had with Israel since the Disengagement.

It has also warned Israel against a Rafah strike, even threatening that it could downgrade relations with the Jewish state as a result.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that destroying Hamas’ last four full-fledged battalions, which are stationed in Rafah, is the only way to terminate the military capabilities of the terror organization.

The other official stated that Washington does not oppose smaller operations in Rafah against specific Hamas targets, and ideas for these will also be presented to the Israeli delegation.

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Washington’s overriding concern is the humanitarian issue, he said, in line with President Joe Biden’s message to Netanyahu in their most recent phone conversation Monday.

“We don’t want Hamas to have a safe haven there, but the current situation is not feasible,” the official said.

The administration wants Israel to exponentially increase the amount of aid it allows into the Gaza Strip, considering the report this week put out by the UN saying that a “famine” is imminent in the coastal enclave.

In the south, Rafah has become a center for distributing aid that should not be endangered by a military incursion. In the north, Washington envisions Israel opening many more ground corridors and establishing “new storage and distribution mechanisms,” said the report.

The Israeli delegation will be led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, two men considered extremely close to Netanyahu. There will also be a representative from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, and an IDF officer from the unit dealing with humanitarian affairs in Gaza.