Egypt–Palestine border

The Philadelphi Corridor

The strip of land along the whole border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, was set up as a buffer zone patrolled by Israeli forces under the 1979 peace treaty in which Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt. When Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, an arrangement let Egypt deploy 750 soldiers on its side while the Palestinian Authority took the other; about two years later Hamas took full control of Gaza. Egypt said it repeatedly destroyed smuggling tunnels, while Israel questioned how effective that was. The Rafah crossing became Gaza’s only link to the outside world not controlled by Israel.^[1]

Since 2023

In December 2023, during the war in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the corridor must be in Israel’s hands; Egypt and Hamas opposed this, and Egypt’s president said Cairo would not allow Palestinians to be displaced into Egypt.^[1] On 29 May 2024 Israel said it had taken operational control of the corridor and found about 20 tunnels; an Egyptian source quoted by state-linked media rejected the tunnel claims.^[3]

After a ceasefire in October 2025, the Rafah crossing reopened on 2 February 2026 for limited travel, with Israel allowing about 50 Palestinians to enter and exit Gaza each day; a UN official described hope mixed with fear among Gazans.^[2]

“hope that people will be able to get out, but real, real fear for the future”^[2]