Philadelphi Route

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The Philadelphi Route (corridor / buffer zone) was an IDF code name for the strip of land along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Under the Oslo Accords, it remained under direct Israeli military control.

One purpose of the Philadelphi Route was to prevent the movement of illegal materials (including weapons, ammunition, illegal drugs) from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. Palestinians in cooperation with some Egyptians have built smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Route to move these into the Gaza Strip [1] .

Most of the tunnels are based in both sides of Rafah. Since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada, the Israeli Defence Forces began operating against the tunnels. IDF vehicles, soldiers and outposts were attacked by gunfire and anti-tank rockets from the southern buildings of Rafah, resulting in the demolition of many border-line houses and the erection of a fortification system which includes a steel defence wall and armored outposts (such as "New Termit" and "Hardon").

Many operations against smuggling tunnels have been undertaken. Most of the operation were taken under heavy fire, prompting the IDF to demolish buildings which were used as fire-posts for Palestinian snipers and RPG launchers. Houses in which tunnels were discovered were also demolished. More than 90 tunnels (up to April 2004) have been discovered and destroyed by IDF forces.

Human Rights Watch has charged that the IDF used tunnels as a pretext to create a depopulated 'buffer zone' along the Gaza-Egypt border, resulting in the destruction of 1,600 homes by September 2004. In a report on house demolitions in Rafah, HRW argues that the IDF should have been able to detect and neutralize tunnels at the point where they cross underneath the border using technologies proven elsewhere (Korean DMZ, U.S.-Mexico border). The IDF also admitted to HRW that the figure it gives of 90-100 tunnels found so far refers to tunnel entrances rather than tunnels themselves, leading to a significant inflation in tunnel figures. Finally, the IDF also told HRW that for much of the Intifada, its standard procedure for dealing with tunnels was to raze the homes in which entrances were found, without even attempting to collapse the tunnels themselves — an approach described as "puzzlingly ineffective ... [and] inconsistent with the supposed gravity of this longstanding threat."

In May 2004, Operation Rainbow was undertaken, in part, to destroy the smuggling tunnels and damage the terrorist infrastructure in the area. The IDF confirmed that a number of Palestinian civilians were killed when accidentally entering the combat zone.

In September 2005 the IDF handed over control to the Egyptian army, which is now responsible for security on the Philadelphi Route and for fighting smuggling.