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Saturday, August 24, 2024
Report: Egypt rejected Israeli offer to build 8 watchtowers along Philadelphi Corridor on Gaza’s southern border
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Egypt rejected an Israeli proposal to build eight watchtowers along the Philadelphi Corridor during talks in Cairo this week to close a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas, according to an Egyptian report.
The Al-Ghad outlet reports that Egypt also rejected a US proposal for two such stations to be built along the Gaza-Egypt border, which has been a focus of the latest round of talks.
Israel has insisted that an IDF presence on the Philadelphi Corridor — the 14-kilometer (9-mile) buffer strip that separates Egypt from Israel and the Gaza Strip — is vital to preventing the Palestinian terror group from re-arming, while Hamas and Egypt want to see Israeli forces withdraw entirely.
The Axios news site reported yesterday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to US President Joe Biden’s request to pull back from one IDF position, though an official said that the change was only a matter of several hundred meters.
The Times of Israel Community.