Egypt has reacted with a wall of silence to Israel’s takeover of the southern Gaza buffer zone, an apparent flout for the decades-old peace deal, as Cairo attempts to contain public anger while avoiding an escalation of tensions with Israel. .
Israel said on Wednesday its forces had gained “operational” control of the Philadelphia Corridor – the Israeli military’s code name for a 9-mile (14-kilometer) strip along the Gaza-Egypt border. Under the terms of the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, both sides can only deploy small numbers of troops or border guards in the demilitarized zone that runs along the entire Israeli-Egyptian border and surrounds the corridor.
Although Egyptian officials have been sounding the alarm for months about the risk of Israeli forces seizing control of the corridor, there has been no official comment from Cairo.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza during a visit to Beijing and reiterated Egypt’s long-standing opposition to “any attempt to force Palestinians to flee their land.”
Former Major General Mohamed Abdel Salem had a 40-year career that included heading the Israel Studies Center within the Egyptian army.
“This is not in our interest,” he said. “We are already suffering economically; there is no need to open new fronts. We are not seeking a major war or more conflicts. The best thing for us now is to end this violence and resume negotiations.
The Israeli takeover of the border comes days after a rare exchange of fire between Egyptian and Israeli troops at the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza, resulting in the deaths of two young Egyptian recruits. The deaths, which sparked outrage among rural people, were buried without the presence of military personnel.
“We want justice,” said a relative of Abdullah Ramadan, 22, who is buried in his hometown of Fayoum, south of Cairo. “When will his blood debt be avenged? When will we get justice for him?” she asked, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of publicly criticizing the government.
Ramadan’s friend and neighbor, Mohamed Elmasry, 24, said their village was “drowned in sadness” because the young soldier was buried without military honors.
“At the funeral, I only saw religious scholars and people from Cairo standing with the family,” he said. “Egypt as a whole is outraged by Abdullah’s death, while they are mourning and outraged by the massacre in Gaza.”
The gulf between public anger over issues such as relations with Israel and border security, long considered touchstone issues of national pride, and the limited response from the highest levels of the Egyptian regime has fueled a sense that the regime wants to divert attention from the attention to Israeli human rights violations.
“This is the worst period in Israel-Egypt relations in a long time,” said Hahler of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “But I think at some point Cairo and other capitals have to recognize that , the Israeli political elite is developing in such a way that we are likely to encounter many such crises in the future.
He said Egypt has chosen to express its anger through actions such as joining South Africa in a lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice earlier this month.
“I don’t think Cairo has the influence to change Israel’s behavior; it’s in Washington,” Heller said. “But Washington refuses to use it.”
Mohannad Sabri, an expert on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel, said Israel’s occupation of the Philadelphia corridor and the Rafah crossing humiliates the Egyptian government.
“These events are certainly embarrassing, but Egypt’s concern is not with the Israelis but with their ability to rule Egypt and control public anger at home,” he said..
Some Egyptian opposition figures have expressed their displeasure, including Hamdeen Sabahi, who in early May called for the abolition of the Camp David accords that led to Egypt’s peace treaty and the withdrawal of the Israeli ambassador. But any attempts at public protest are met with severe crackdowns, including frequent terrorism charges against protesters.
The Egyptian Committee for Rights and Freedoms, a Cairo-based group, has tracked at least 120 arrests since October in connection with the Gaza protests.
“This feeling of anger is huge. We see it at the funerals of soldiers,” said Mohammed Lotfy, ECRF executive director. “But there is a disconnect between the mood on the streets and the mood in formal settings; the regime does not want to escalate the situation.
He added that Egyptian authorities were concerned that allowing protests on the issue could quickly turn into demonstrations about rising living costs, high inflation and increasing poverty.
“The government is worried that today people will protest in Gaza and tomorrow they will protest against the economy. The Egyptian government is very worried about popular anger at the moment and they don’t want people to get used to protesting,” he said.
A reporter from Cairo contributes a report
