When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans late last year to occupy a sensitive corridor in the Gaza Strip along the border with Egypt, the response from Cairo was public, unequivocal and ominous.
“It must be sternly emphasized that any Israeli move in this direction poses a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations,” the Egyptian government said in a statement in English in January, weeks after Netanyahu announced plans to occupy the so-called Philadelphia Corridor. Egypt said an Israeli military presence in the corridor would violate the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries.
This week, the Israeli army said it had assumed “tactical control” of the corridor, but there has been no official comment from Egypt about the seizure, even as the Egyptian government comes under pressure at home to take a tougher stance against Israel following an Israeli military attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The silence may reflect the dilemma Egypt finds itself in after nearly eight months of war in Gaza.
Former Israeli and Egyptian officials say Egypt and Israel view their relationship as key to their national security and that it is unlikely that the Egyptian government will take any substantive steps against Israel. Peace between Egypt and Israel has been a cornerstone of stability in the Middle East for 45 years.
Former Egyptian diplomat Ezzedine Fischer said in an interview on Thursday that Egypt has remained faithful to the principle of stabilizing relations with Israel and protecting Israel “from the inevitable crises that will result from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
“Egypt has consistently sought to protect this relationship and minimize the impact of the conflict,” Fischer said.
Egypt's economy, already fragile before the war, has been hit by reduced traffic through the Suez Canal and lost billions of dollars in revenue as ships were diverted due to Houthi attacks in or near the Red Sea.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is wary of a possible influx of Gaza refugees across the border, sensitive to anger in Egypt and across the Arab world over Israel's bloody operations in Gaza, and wary of the influence of Islamist groups such as Hamas, which grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that el-Sisi ousted from power in a 2013 coup.
While expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the Egyptian government has also cracked down on dissent at home: 120 people were detained in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests in the country, according to the Egyptian Committee for Rights and Freedoms, of whom around 30 were eventually released.
Israeli forces claim they are invading the border to block Hamas' ability to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip through tunnels from Egypt, a claim Egypt strongly denies, saying it has destroyed 1,500 tunnels over the past decade and strengthened the wall between Gaza and Egypt.
Israel's advance into the corridor this week is part of its offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which the United Nations says has forced more than one million Palestinians already displaced from their homes.
Former enemies who fought multiple wars between 1948 and 1973, Israel and Egypt have clashed diplomatically over Israel's Gaza operations, particularly the Rafah Offensive. But Egyptian and Israeli authorities now cooperate closely on security, and defense officials meet regularly in Cairo and Tel Aviv.
“Security agencies will continue to consult with security agencies,” Fischer said. “The border will be jointly managed, the communication will continue. Both sides understand that it's in their interest.”
Yet the relationship is currently under considerable strain.
Israel captured the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, a key gateway for food and other supplies, in early May and it has been blockaded since. Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian officials are arguing over who is responsible for the blockade and how operations there should resume.
Israeli state broadcaster Kan reported Thursday night that Israel and Egypt had agreed in principle to reopen the crossing, but the most fundamental question of who would run it on the Gaza side remained unanswered. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Moreover, analysts say the possibility of Israeli forces conducting heavy military operations so close to Egyptian territory has unnerved Egyptian and Israeli officials, who prefer to keep their militaries separated as much as possible.
At least one Egyptian soldier was killed in a shootout with Israeli forces near the Rafah checkpoint on Monday, a clash that could inflame public opinion. Both sides say they are investigating the incident, which the Egyptian government and its tightly controlled media have downplayed.
Egyptian officials have also been warning for months that an Israeli military attack on Rafah could have devastating consequences for Gaza's civilians.
Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Cairo, said one of Egypt's biggest concerns is that an Israeli military operation could send Gaza residents flooding across the border. As long as that possibility remains remote, any resentment that Israeli military operations in the Philadelphia Corridor would cause in Egypt would probably be manageable, Shaked said.
“Both Israel and Egypt understand their true interests,” he added. “There are tensions, frustrations and dissatisfaction on both sides, but they try to hide it.”
Israeli military officials have generally avoided accusing Egypt of not cracking down on cross-border smuggling, in what some analysts say is an attempt to avoid damaging sensitive and important ties between the two countries.
On Wednesday night, Israeli army spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari refused to definitively confirm whether Israeli forces had found any cross-border tunnels in the corridor. But an Israeli military official who briefed reporters on Wednesday on condition of anonymity, in line with military practice, said the army had identified at least 20 tunnels leading from Gaza into Egypt.
One of the tunnels in the area has an entrance 100 yards from the Rafah checkpoint and stretches nearly a mile underground, including rooms used by militants to hide out, Admiral Hagari said. Israeli forces destroyed the tunnels with explosives, he added.
An Israeli military official said “tactical control” did not mean Israeli troops would be stationed at every point along the Philadelphia corridor, but that it meant Israeli forces could effectively cut off Hamas' supply lines through the border area. The official suggested that Israeli forces had begun work to dismantle the network of tunnels in the Rafah area.
Following Israel's announcement of the corridor on Wednesday night, Egypt's state-run Al-Kahera News quoted an anonymous official as saying claims of tunnels under the border were “not true,” but did not directly address Israel's claims to control the corridor or hint at further diplomatic action.
