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Why is Israel Demanding Control Over 2 Gaza Corridors in the Cease-Fire Talks?

FILE - A Palestinian flag is seen with the background of a section of the wall in the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza, on the background, near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Sunday, July 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
FILE - A Palestinian flag is seen with the background of a section of the wall in the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza, on the background, near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Sunday, July 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
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Why is Israel Demanding Control Over 2 Gaza Corridors in the Cease-Fire Talks?

FILE - A Palestinian flag is seen with the background of a section of the wall in the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza, on the background, near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Sunday, July 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
FILE - A Palestinian flag is seen with the background of a section of the wall in the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza, on the background, near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Sunday, July 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

Israel's demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza, which Hamas has long rejected, threatens to unravel cease-fire talks aimed at ending the 10-month-old war, freeing scores of hostages and preventing an even wider conflict.
Officials close to the negotiations have said Israel wants to maintain a military presence in a narrow buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border it calls the Philadelphi corridor and in an area it carved out that cuts off northern Gaza from the south, known as the Netzarim corridor.
It's unclear if Israeli control of these corridors is included in a US-backed proposal that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Hamas to accept to break an impasse in cease-fire talks. Blinken, who is back in the region this week, said Monday that Israel had agreed to the proposal without saying what it entails.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says control of the Egyptian border area is needed to prevent Hamas from replenishing its arsenal through smuggling tunnels and that Israel needs a "mechanism" to prevent militants from returning to the north, which has been largely isolated since October.
Hamas has rejected those demands, which were only made public in recent weeks. There was no mention of Israel retaining control of the corridors in earlier drafts of an evolving cease-fire proposal seen by The Associated Press.
Hamas says any lasting Israeli presence in Gaza would amount to military occupation. Egypt, which has served as a key mediator in the monthslong talks, is also staunchly opposed to an Israeli presence on the other side of its border with Gaza.
What are the corridors and why does Israel want them? The Philadelphi corridor is a narrow strip — about 100 meters (yards) wide in parts — running the 14-kilometer (8.6-mile) length of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt. It includes the Rafah Crossing, which until May was Gaza's only outlet to the outside world not controlled by Israel.
Israel says Hamas used a vast network of tunnels beneath the border to import arms, allowing it to build up the military machine it used in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. The military says it has found and destroyed dozens of tunnels since seizing the corridor in May.
Egypt rejects those allegations, saying it destroyed hundreds of tunnels on its side of the border years ago and set up a military buffer zone of its own that prevents smuggling.
The roughly 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim Corridor runs from the Israeli border to the coast just south of Gaza City, severing the territory's largest metropolitan area and the rest of the north from the south.
Hamas has demanded that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled the north be allowed to return to their homes. Israel has agreed to their return but wants to ensure they are not armed.
Why are Hamas and Egypt opposed to Israeli control? Israeli control over either corridor would require closed roads, fences, guard towers and other military installations. Checkpoints are among the most visible manifestations of Israel's open-ended military rule over the West Bank, and over Gaza prior to its 2005 withdrawal.
Israel says such checkpoints are needed for security, but Palestinians view them as a humiliating infringement on their daily life. They would also be seen by many Palestinians as a prelude to a lasting military occupation and the return of Jewish settlements — something Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners have openly called for.
Hamas has demanded a total Israeli withdrawal and accuses Netanyahu of setting new conditions in order to sabotage the talks.
Egypt says Israel’s operations along the border threaten the landmark 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. It has refused to open its side of the Rafah crossing until Israel returns the Gaza side to Palestinian control.
Are these new demands by Israel? Israel insists they are not, referring to them as "clarifications" to an earlier proposal endorsed by President Joe Biden in a May 31 speech and by the UN Security Council in a rare cease-fire resolution. Israel also accuses Hamas of making new demands since then that it cannot accept.
But neither the speech nor the Security Council resolution made any reference to Israel's demands regarding the corridors — which were only made public in recent weeks — and both referred to a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. The US has also said it is against any reoccupation of Gaza or reduction of its territory.
Previous written drafts of the cease-fire proposal stipulate an initial Israeli withdrawal from populated and central areas during the first phase of the agreement, when the most vulnerable hostages would be freed and displaced Palestinians allowed to return to the north.
During the second phase, the specifics of which would be negotiated during the first, Israeli forces would withdraw completely and Hamas would release all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.
The most recent drafts of the proposal — including one that Hamas approved in principle on July 2 — contain language specifying that displaced residents returning in the first phase must not carry weapons. But they do not specify a mechanism for searching them.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt, which have spent months trying to broker an agreement, have not weighed in publicly on Israel's demands regarding the corridors.
An Israeli delegation held talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Sunday focused on the Philadelphi corridor but did not achieve a breakthrough, according to an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.
What happens if the talks fail? Failure to reach a cease-fire deal would prolong a war in which Israel's offensive has already killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents and destroyed much of the impoverished territory.
Palestinian militants are still holding some 110 hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that started the war, in which they killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel has only rescued seven hostages through military operations. Around a third of the 110 are already dead, according to Israeli authorities, and the rest are at risk as the war grinds on.
A cease-fire deal also offers the best chance of averting — or at least delaying — an Iranian or Hezbollah strike on Israel over last month's targeted killing of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut and a Hamas leader in Tehran.
Israel has vowed to respond to any attack, and the United States has rushed military assets to the region, raising the prospect of an even wider and more devastating war.

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Seven Arab Countries Struggle with Power Cuts as Renewable Energy Is Seen as a Solution

A view of Cairo during a power cut. (Reuters)
A view of Cairo during a power cut. (Reuters)
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Seven Arab Countries Struggle with Power Cuts as Renewable Energy Is Seen as a Solution

A view of Cairo during a power cut. (Reuters)
A view of Cairo during a power cut. (Reuters)

Seven Arab countries are struggling with frequent power cuts. The reasons for the inability to meet local demand for electricity may vary from one country to the other, but the people and economies are suffering as a result. The power cuts take on a new dimension during the summer, with people languishing in soaring temperatures when they are unable to cool off with air conditioning.

The power cuts are most severe in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Kuwait and people have resorted to renewable energy as an alternative, which ends up eating into their savings.

Egypt

Egypt’s electricity shortages have in recent months turned into a real crisis. The government has tried to ease the crisis by only cutting power by around two to three hours a day. When the crisis intensified, the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company introduced a schedule for the cuts so that the people may organize their daily affairs around them.

The government recently announced that it would implement a plan to address technical malfunctions as part of a pledge to resolve the electricity shortage.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly had said power consumption had increased to new levels in 2024. Egypt uses around 37.5 megawatts per day, a 12 percent increase from 2023. He did not mention the impact of the construction of new cities on demand.

He said 3 to 4 megawatts were needed to plug the gap and meet daily needs. “They will be provided through new and renewable energy,” he revealed, saying Egypt was cooperating with the United Arab Emirates to that end.

Only 12 percent of power generated in Egypt comes from renewable energy.

A student studies for high school exams at an Alexandria library during a power cut. (EPA)

Impact on crops

The power shortage is having an indirect impact on crops.

A soybean farmer spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat about a shortage in fertilizer for his crops that can be traced to the electricity crisis.

Fertilizer companies in Egypt were forced to stop operations due to the power cuts. The Misr Fertilizers Production Company (MOPCO) announced in July that it was halting operations at its three companies due to a lack of gas supplies.

The state electricity company was forced to use the gas, which would normally have been allotted to MOPCO and others, to operate its own power stations.

Other fertilizer companies have also suffered from the same problem.

Egypt is a major exporter of fertilizer, ranking sixth in the world.

The drop in production has led to the emergence of a black market where the product is sold at exploitative prices. Farmers are forced to turn to the black market, even while incurring losses, just so their crops don’t go to waste.

The rise in the cost of fertilizer has also led to a hike in prices of food, which in turn feeds inflation, which is a global problem.

Diesel-operated private generators are seen in Beirut. (AP)

Darkness in Beirut

In Lebanon, frequent power cuts, which can last a whole 24 hours, have affected all aspects of life, including education.

One citizen, Hanadi al-Hajj, complained to Asharq Al-Awsat about how the power cuts meant children studying online were unable to use their computers because they had no electricity.

She said: “The power cuts forced us to install solar panels.” She added, however, that she can’t rely on the panels during the winter because of a lack of sunlight, so she also has to turn to electricity provided by private generators, which is eating away at her savings.

At the beginning of the year, the state power company, Electricite du Liban, was able to provide around six to ten hours of electricity per day depending on the region, an increase from one to two hours previously.

Boiling temperatures in Iraq

On July 14, protests broke out in the Iraqi province of al-Diwaniyah over the “complete lack of electricity” even as the temperatures soared to boiling, said Ahmed Hussein, who took part in the rallies.

Hussein, a blacksmith, told Asharq Al-Awsat that his work relies on electricity. “A job, which would normally take three hours of work, can now take three days or more” because of the power cuts, he explained, saying his income is suffering as a result.

“How can a person live without electricity in a country where temperatures reach boiling degrees. I come from the country of oil. How is possible that we are suffering like this?” he asked incredulously.

Oil- and gas- rich Iraq produces 26,000 megawatts of electricity, while it needs 35,000 to meet local demand.

The irony is that Lebanon relies on fuel from Iraq to address its electricity problem, while Iraq itself can’t fix its own crisis.

The power cuts are attributed to deteriorating infrastructure at electricity plants and a shortage in fuel.

Iraq boasts four times the gas reserves as Egypt, but it produces no more than a tenth of what Egypt does. So, it relies on gas imports from Iran to plug demand.

GDP and electricity

In Yemen, power cuts can last around 12 hours a day, 10 in Iraq, 10 to 14 in Sudan, 12 to 20 in Lebanon, 10 to 20 in Syria, three in Egypt and two to three in Kuwait.

Electricity is the main mover of growth and a significant element in production. Yemeni economic expert Mustafa Nasr noted that Arab countries suffering from power cuts, have also witnessed a drop in their GDP.

“Electricity really is part of national security,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He explained how a three-hour power cut in Egypt leads to a halt in industrial and electronic services, meaning the economy is losing around 90 hours of production a month. Prolonged shortages throughout a year could total over 1,000 hours, or around 45 days of the year.

This means the economy had come to a halt for 45 days, on top of the country’s national holidays, which in Egypt amount to 22.

Egypt’s GDP in 2023 reached around 396 billion dollars, Iraq 251 billion, Kuwait 162 billion and Yemen 21 billion in 2018, which is the latest figure from the World Bank.

Electrical cables are seen in Baghdad. (AFP)

Temperature and electricity

Ahmed al-Sayyed, an economics and finance professor, said the recent electricity problems can also be attributed to rising temperatures.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said studies have shown that 2024 will likely be the hottest on record.

The infrastructure and production capacity differs from country to country and how they are impacted by rising temperatures, he added.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) seasonal forecast service showed that July 22, 2024, was the hottest day ever recorded so far.

Temperatures soared to new highs in cities in Japan, Indonesia and China in August, while countries in the Arab Gulf and other Arab countries boiled in heat that reached over 60 degrees. Cities in Europe also simmered at 45 degrees and sometimes more.

Along with rising temperatures, director of economic research at an Arab center, Mohammed Youssef said resolving power cuts must be approached from three angles.

The first lies in ability, like chronic inability to produce enough power to meet demand. The second lies in the weakness of networks that is preventing the electricity from reaching certain regions. The third lies in regulating production in areas receiving power, he told Asharq Al-Awsat from Abu Dhabi.

Hafez Salmawy, energy sector aide to several Arab countries, said the electricity crisis in Egypt lies in a lack of fuel, which in turn was caused by a shortage in dollars. Once foreign currency is available, the problem will be solved. The same applies to Kuwait.

Syria and Yemen, however, face a different, much more difficult situation because of the damage to the electricity network and impact of sanctions on the economy. The problems there are therefore political, he explained.

Oil-rich Libya is also suffering from political problems that are preventing it from solving its power problems. Iraq, which has the finances, is suffering from run down networks and a low production capacity.

Yemenis sort electrical cable lines to connect power to their homes. (EPA)

Same solutions

Despite the different reasons for the power cuts in each country, the crises all fall under energy security because they are affecting the people and threatening overall economies.

Ali al-Rumyan, an international energy expert, said energy security for any country means a stable energy sector that allows for sustainable investments and long-term plans. This means providing the necessary resources and allowing power to reach everyone, whether this power is electric, solar, gas, solar, wind or hydrogenic.

Arab and Gulf countries must focus more on providing energy security, especially given climate change and rising global temperatures, he urged.

Solutions to the power crises lie in establishing a strategic reserve of fuel to buy the product when prices drop, said Salmawy. Energy sector debts must also be paid to encourage investment.

Renewable energy must also be incorporated more into the local energy mix, he added.

Sayyed suggested drafting plans for the early detection of crises, which aren’t difficult to come up with given data on climate change.

Dargham Mohammed Ali, an economic expert from Iraq, said renewable energy, especially solar energy, should be seen as an effective solution in Arab countries given their climate.

Mohammed Youssef, the economic expert, said Yemen should forge international partnerships that would provide it with grants and aid to its electricity sector. It can also benefit from technical and financial support from the World Bank.

Networks must also be extended to reach all rural and urban residential areas, he added.