Egypt and Saladin Axis – Amr Hashim Rabi

The Saladin Axis is the axis that separates Egypt and Gaza, and the Rafah Transit Gate separates Rafah Sinai and Rafah Palestine.

The axis starts from the Mediterranean Sea and ends in the Gaza Strip to the south, with a total length of 14 kilometers, followed by the demarcation line between occupied Palestine and the Gulf of Aqaba, with a length of about 250 kilometers. According to the United Nations partition resolution issued in 1947, the Gaza Strip belongs to the Palestinian and Israeli states.

Israel occupied the entire region in 1967, after having previously occupied Umm Lash on the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea following the 1948 war and having not withdrawn its troops from the region following the 1956 war.

What is important in all this is that the existing border between Egypt and Palestine, at its most important point, the 12 km area with the border with the Gaza Strip after the 1967 war, is a densely populated area, and does not extend southwards to the desert areas of the Negev, where there is the Kerem Shalom crossing from the north, but a crossing designated for goods.

Of course, no Arab state seeks to establish a border with the usurped colonial entity, Israel. Therefore, Egypt is very concerned about ensuring that Arab security personnel are not taken within a meter, and it believes – and this is the reality – that the presence of Zionist soldiers within a meter, more than what happened after the events on its border in 1967, is detrimental to its national security.

On this basis, the Philadelphia Agreement on supervision of the Rafah crossing was signed in 2006, under which the European side would supervise the Rafah crossing as a party to the satisfaction of the Zionist entity, Egypt and the Palestinian side.

But after the Al-Aqsa flood, Israel used its aggression against the Gaza Strip to complete its control over the entire Gaza Strip, including the crossings, and did not agree to withdraw its troops from there, claiming that this was the reason, what happened. Previously, due to Hamas’ control over the Gaza Strip, the crossings were in a state of confusion between closure and opening, but Egypt continued to seek to deliver supplies to the Gaza Strip through tunnels during the closure. When necessary, Palestinians were brought into Egypt without entering Egypt, resulting in displacement, the erasure and loss of the Palestinian identity of this important area, and the Palestinian issue began with the Balfour Affair. The Declaration and the Partition Decision allowed Jewish foreigners to come to Arab lands.

Since Egypt insists on rejecting the Israeli presence at the Rafah border, the Zionist entity has come up with many excuses, including setting up observation points and cameras to track the situation at the border crossings when the troops withdraw after reaching an agreement to stop aggression, repatriating Zionist prisoners, and releasing Palestinian detainees in Zionist occupation prisons who are resistance fighters and who are subjected to the worst torture and abuse every day because they refuse to Judaize their land and sanctity and plunder their resources.

Today, Egypt is on the same side as Hamas’ demands, Qatari negotiators support them, and the United States backs the upcoming presidential elections in this Zionist entity.

But this time, Israel cannot leave Gaza with any gains that affect Egypt’s national security. Everyone must line up to support the Egyptian negotiators so that the neighboring remaining areas are not polluted by the feet of foreign occupiers who left in 2005 during the reign of the terrorist Sharon.

The return of Zionists to the region has increased concerns about Egypt’s security, as they support terrorism and smuggling, and threaten Egypt, as Israel always seeks to harm Egypt’s economy, not to mention frequent contacts with Egyptian security personnel.