——— Cairo says will not accept any Israeli presence along the strategic Philadelphi Corridor
DM Monitoring
CAIRO: Egypt has said it will not accept the continued presence of Israeli forces along its border with the Gaza Strip, state-linked media reported on Monday.
Cairo, a key mediator in efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, “reiterated to all parties that it will not accept any Israeli presence” along the strategic Philadelphi Corridor, state-linked Al-Qahera News said, citing a high-level source.
A key sticking point in the ceasefire talks have been calls for Israel to withdraw its forces from the border area, including the Rafah crossing, the only one from the Palestinian territory that was not directly controlled by Israel.
Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing in early May, a move that has cut off a crucial aid route and drawn repeated condemnation from Egypt and other countries.
“Egypt is managing the mediation” between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas “in accordance with its national security”, the source told Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egypt’s state intelligence service.
The negotiations, also mediated by Qatar and the United States, have yielded little hope for a ceasefire, though Washington said Friday that some progress had been made.
Hamas said Sunday the group’s delegation had met with Egyptian and Qatari mediators before leaving Cairo, where Israeli negotiators were also expected.
Earlier, Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday (Aug 25), saying it destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers and thwarted a major attack, while the Lebanese group insisted it had been able to deliver a drone and rocket barrage of its own.
The result was perhaps the biggest exchange of fire in 10 months of a war which began with a Hamas attack launched from Gaza and has triggered both new violence on the Lebanon-Israel border and fears of a broader conflagration in the Middle East.
The Israeli military said around 100 of its fighter jets had struck more than 270 targets, “90 per cent” of which “were short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel”. Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, denied that thousands of launchers had been destroyed or that Israel had thwarted a larger attack. It said its own operation “was completed and accomplished”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet the strikes were “not the final word” in the campaign against Hezbollah.
A soldier in the Israeli navy was killed in combat and two more wounded, the military said, with an official telling media their boat may have been hit by one of their own side’s air-defence interceptors.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces throughout the Gaza war, in what Hezbollah says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.
