Explainer | Israel seized the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border. Here’s why that’s important

The Philadelphi, or Salaheddin, corridor is a narrow buffer zone along the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt that Israel now says it controls.

The barbed-wire patrol road runs for 14 kilometres (8.5 miles) along the border and is about 100 metres (330 feet) wide at its narrowest, with tunnels said to be dug under it and used for smuggling.

It was built by the military when Gaza was under direct Israeli occupation between 1967 and 2005, and has become a key target in Israel’s current offensive, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Israel began a siege on the long-blockaded territory soon after the unprecedented Hamas attack. The Philadelphi corridor – the Israeli name for the route Egyptians and Palestinians call Salaheddin – was Gaza’s only border not under complete Israeli control.

A 2005 agreement between Israel and Egypt established the corridor as a buffer zone, as part of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip that year.

It was meant to facilitate control over movement in and out of the Palestinians territory and discourage incursions and smuggling.