Egypt and the Arming of Hamas

In his press conferences on Monday and Wednesday, Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the importance of retaining control over the Philadelphi Corridor and preventing Hamas from re-arming itself, because the corridor had been used for a massive flow of arms into Gaza over recent years.

As to be expected, Egypt rejected Netanyahu’s claims, saying they were simply an attempt to hinder mediation efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement. Cairo accused Netanyahu of exacerbating the situation with the intention of justifying aggressive and inflammatory policies, leading to further escalation of conflict in the region.

And on Thursday, Egypt’s Chief of Staff made a surprise visit to the border with the Gaza Strip, in a move widely seen as the culmination of that series of critical comments made by Egyptian officials against Israel.

But careful consideration of the situation, in the context of 17 years of Hamas rule over the Gaza Strip, while the only border not controlled by Israel was the border with Egypt, indicates that the Egyptians have allowed a substantial flow of weaponry to Hamas.

While the official policy was for Egypt to secure the border and prevent any such flow, one analyst says that, "given the endemic corruption in the Egyptian military, backhanders were very effective and before long Hamas were able to drill these more than 100 tunnels into Egypt."

That seems to be one reason Egypt resisted the Israeli invasion of Rafah, because that invasion would reveal to the world how complicit Egypt has been in the buildup of Hamas’s forces in the Gaza Strip.

More detail in this discussion with Jake Wallis Simons and John Spencer, published on YouTube by Spectator TV.