Therefore, it is better to look at what the Israelis say about the aims of the onslaught. Among those is a declaration made by Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, chief of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Southern Command. "Israel's aim in the operation would be to significantly damage Hamas leadership, tactical capabilities and smuggling routes," he said just before the operation began about two weeks ago. In fact, developments and fighting on the ground clearly show that the IDF has been trying to achieve the aims declared by Galant, namely and more explicitly killing Hamas leaders and militants, destroying Hamas's rocket firing capabilities and lastly, bombing smuggling routes from Egypt into Gaza, which in essence means destroying tunnels.
The tunnels bombed intensively by Israel's air force are of course along the border and situated in a certain area.
This 14-kilometer-long and one-kilometer-wide no man's land area, which enables passage into Gaza from the Sinai Peninsula, has a rather strange name: The Philadelphi corridor, or the Philadelphi Route.
This strange name has no definite origin. Some Israeli sources say the area was named randomly by Israeli military computers about 20 years ago, although other sources indicate the name was the code name of an Israeli military unit that had operated in the area. Palestinians call the area the Salah Al Din border road or area.
Palestinians have dug a network of tunnels along this corridor that run under the border between Gaza and Egypt. The tunnels are carved out of the clay soil and reinforced with planks and concrete. The bigger and wider tunnels also have power lines. The tunnels are used for smuggling cigarettes, foodstuffs, medicine, arms and ammunition, even livestock. They surface under makeshift greenhouses on the Gaza side of the border.
These tunnels along the Philadelphi corridor have not only been a major target of the Israeli air force but have also been the focus of recent diplomatic moves by France and Egypt to end the Israeli onslaught with an immediate cease-fire.
In this regard, the US and France have been holding intensive talks with Egypt over the possibility of deploying a delegation of engineering experts in the Philadelphi corridor in order to stop the smuggling of weapons and militants. Sources in Jerusalem confirmed last Tuesday that French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed the initiative to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during their talks.
Sarkozy, who is heavily involved in mediation efforts for a truce between Israel and Hamas, suggested to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last Monday that a force of specialists be deployed along the border, operating from the Egyptian side.
This specialist force would ostensibly be formed with the aid Egypt is planning to request from the international community for border control. It would operate alongside Egyptian security forces and would not affect Egyptian control of the border area. The purpose of the force would be to help supervise the border region, namely the Philadelphi corridor. France has also proposed to Egypt that a small naval force be deployed to monitor the smuggling activities by sea.
As explained, the French-Egyptian plan to end the current conflict focuses heavily on the tunnels along the Philadelphi corridor. This plan is still being considered by the US and the international community as a base for implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1860, accepted last Thursday, which not only calls for an immediate cease-fire, but also for arrangements in Gaza (implying the Philadelphi corridor) to prevent arms smuggling.
All in all, whatever the outcome of the current Israeli onslaught, the Philadelphi corridor will be one of the major issues with regards to any diplomatic solution or agreement vis-à-vis the Gaza problem.
