Israel said planning military op to take control of border between Gaza and Egypt - The Times of Israel

Israel has informed Egypt that it’s planning to launch a military operation to take control of the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Citing Israeli and Egyptian officials, the report says such an operation is expected to see Israel take the Rafah border crossing and station forces along the so-called Philadelphi Corridor separating Egypt and Gaza, with Israeli forces operating within the Strip.

The operation has not gotten the all-clear from Israeli leaders, according to the report, which says the timing will depend on talks with the Egyptian government as the latter works to broker a new hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli officials have reportedly sought to allay Egyptian concerns that the operation could result in accidental damage in Egypt, and that it could breach the limits on positioning troops in the area as part of the 1979 peace treaty between the countries.

The newspaper also says Egypt rejected an Israeli proposal to have Israeli troops conduct joint patrols on the Egyptian side of the border, saying it was working to install barriers and increase surveillance in the area.

“Israel does not want to be responsible for Gaza in the long term, but the question is how do you make sure that Gaza stays demilitarized?” a senior Israeli military official is quoted as saying. “It’s a real dilemma. The only way to control a geographic area is to control what’s going in and out.”

“Right now in the near term, in the next few decades, Israel needs to control the borders because of the security issues,” the official adds.

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