Egypt confirmed its commitment to a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor and the Palestinian side of the Rafah Crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, which it occupied last May.
The Cairo News Channel quoted an unnamed high-level source as saying: “There is no truth in form or substance to what the Israeli media reported about Egypt’s approval for Israeli forces to remain at the Philadelphi Crossing.”
The source confirmed that “Egypt renews its commitment to a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Rafah Crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor.”
Earlier today, Monday, the Hebrew newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” said that the Israeli negotiating delegation regarding the ceasefire talks in Gaza returned from Cairo, which it arrived in on Sunday evening to Tel Aviv, “without any progress in the talks on the Philadelphi Corridor.”
Yedioth Ahronoth quoted an Israeli source familiar with the details of the talks (unnamed) as saying that “the story of the Philadelphi Corridor is still open, and there
are no understandings about it, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not ready to give up his position on this matter.”
The Israeli source confirmed that “the gap lies in the fact that Israel is prepared to keep forces there in the Philadelphi Corridor, but the Egyptians and Palestinians insist on a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army.”
Netanyahu had renewed his insistence on maintaining the control of the Israeli army forces over the Philadelphi Corridor, while opposition leader Yair Lapid accused him of procrastinating and sabotaging the negotiations.
On Friday evening, the mediators in the ceasefire talks on Gaza announced that the United States had presented a new proposal to reduce the gaps between Israel and Hamas, according to a joint Egyptian-Qatari-American statement published by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, at the conclusion of the second and final day of the round of talks hosted by the Qatari capital, Doha, on Thursday and Friday.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency