CAIRO

Egypt warned Monday that any attempt by Israeli forces to occupy the border area between it and the Gaza Strip, known as the Philadelphia Corridor, would threaten bilateral relations between the two countries. 

Diaa Rashwan, chairman of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), described recent Israeli statements claiming that weapons were being smuggled from Egypt to Gaza via the Rafah border crossing as being "empty and ridiculous.”

He added that such claims are announced by Israel "to justify its continuation of collective punishment" against Palestinians in Gaza.

Rashwan stressed that Egypt would consider any attempt by Israel to occupy the Philadelphia Corridor area as a "violation of the security agreements and protocols signed between it (Israel) and Egypt."

"It must be strictly emphasized that any Israeli move in this direction will lead to a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations," he added.

The Philadelphia Corridor is a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) long narrow strip of land that serves as a buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border and is guaranteed by the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty of 1979.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said several times that the Philadelphia Corridor area must be under Israel's control, a move that if carried out would separate Gaza from Egypt.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed 1,200 people.

At least 25,295 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 63,000 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar