Israel considers Egypt's proposals to settle Rafah and border dispute

Cairo is proposing a phased wall and UN supervision of the Palestinian side of the crossing

Egyptian army soldiers guard their side of the Rafah crossing with Gaza. Chris Whiteoak / The National

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Israel is considering Egyptian proposals for the withdrawal of its forces from the Palestinian side of the Egypt-Gaza border in exchange for security measures to stop the smuggling of weapons into the territory, sources told The National on Wednesday.

Israel in May captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, as well as a strip that runs the entire length of the Egypt-Gaza border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor. It said it has since destroyed underground tunnels that were being used by Hamas to smuggle weapons, funds and personnel from Egypt into the enclave.

Egypt has strongly rejected the allegations and responded to the Israeli capture of the two areas by closing the Rafah crossing, which had been the main channel for humanitarian aid going into to Gaza since Israel's war against Hamas started in October.

The sources said the Egyptian proposals include the phased construction of a giant wall along the 13km Gaza-Egypt border. The wall, they said, would stand six metres above ground and six underground, with the subterranean part serving as a barrier preventing the digging of new tunnels, according to the sources.

They said the wall would be fitted with cutting-edge security cameras and sensors.

For the Rafah crossing, Egypt’s proposals include overall UN supervision of a Palestinian administration of the Palestinian side, said the sources. That would be linked to but not directly from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas would not be involved.

Israel has yet to respond to the proposals, which Egyptian security officials and representatives of the Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet have discussed over the past two weeks in Cairo, said the sources.

Their negotiations are conducted on a separate but related track to efforts by mediators from Egypt, the US and Qatar to broker a Gaza ceasefire, and a prisoner and hostage swap between Israel and Hamas.

Those negotiations are continuing through mid and high-level contacts between stakeholders but are not likely to see any significant movement before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington later this month, said the sources.

The Associated Press on Wednesday quoted Cairo airport officials as saying an Israeli delegation had arrived in the Egyptian capital to resume talks. It did not identify the officials, but the sources had earlier said Shin Bet members were due in Cairo this week for talks on the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor.

Settling the dispute over the Rafah crossing and the border strip is now a key part of any ceasefire and hostage-prisoner swap deal, said the sources. Both Egypt and Hamas insist there can be no deal without an Egyptian-Israeli agreement on the Gaza border crossing and the border strip.

However, Israel has in the past said it wants to retain control of the Gaza-Egypt border corridor and a say in the running of the Rafah crossing. It also seeks to retain the right to send back its troops to the area if necessary.

The dispute over the border crossing and corridor have further strained relations between Egypt and Israel, who are bound by a 1979 peace treaty sponsored by the US. Egypt has said it intended to join South Africa in its case presented to the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

However, the tension has not stopped Egyptian and Israeli officials from meeting on regular basis in a months-long bid to broker a Gaza ceasefire.

Egypt has traditionally attached significant importance to Gaza, considering the tiny enclave part of its national security sphere. It has been wary of the rise to power in Gaza of Hamas, whose brand of Islamic militancy mirrors that of Egyptian groups that have taken up arms against the government at intervals since the 1970s. Hamas has ruled Gaza alone since 2007 and is at loggerheads with the Palestinian Authority.

While Egypt follows a zero-tolerance policy at home towards political Islam, it has established close but pragmatic relations with Hamas in a bid to contain the group and ensure it does not forge an alliance with its home-grown militants.

Egypt, the most populous Arab nation with 106 million people, has for years been fighting militants in the north-east corner of the Sinai Peninsula abutting Gaza.

The war in Gaza was triggered by an attack on southern Israel by Hamas-led fighters who killed 1,200 people and took another 240 hostage. Israel responded with a relentless military campaign that has to date killed more than 38,800 Palestinians and injured more than twice that number.

The war has also displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people and created a major humanitarian crisis.