Zein Khalil
15 January 2025•Update: 15 January 2025
JERUSALEM
The Israeli army has begun preparing for a withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border while awaiting the completion of a much-anticipated hostage-prisoner swap deal, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported late Tuesday evening.
"Meetings and situation assessments were held in the Southern Command of the Israeli army over the past 24 hours in preparation for a gradual withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as the cease-fire agreement begins to take effect,” the broadcaster stated.
Citing an unnamed security source, KAN said, “The Israeli army is preparing to withdraw from the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing shortly after the agreement is signed.”
"The Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor (along the Gaza-Egypt border) has been coordinated with Israeli, Egyptian, and US security officials,” the media outlet said.
It added that "the army will withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor within the first few days after the agreement with Hamas is signed."
However, it added that the army "may take up to a week to dismantle its positions and the infrastructure it has established in the Netzarim axis in central Gaza."
It further clarified that "the army is preparing to establish a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip and has already demolished all buildings in an area more than a kilometer wide along the border (without specifying the direction)."
Despite mentioning the Netzarim and Philadelphi axes and the Rafah crossing, the broadcaster did not discuss the army's readiness to withdraw from the northern Gaza governorate.
Qatar said early Tuesday that Gaza cease-fire negotiations are in their "final details" and that announcing an agreement is “imminent.”
“A draft agreement has been handed to both Hamas and Israel, and major obstacles on key contentious issues between the two sides have been addressed,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a press conference in Doha.
Palestinian resistance group Hamas also confirmed that a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement is in “its final stages.”
Israel has continued its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 46,600 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala
