\n<\/p>\n
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel announced plans late last year to occupy a sensitive corridor of land in the Gaza Strip, along the border with Egypt, the response from Cairo was public, explicit and ominous.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt must be strictly emphasized that any Israeli move in this direction will lead to a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations,\u201d the Egyptian government said in a statement in English in January, weeks after Mr. Netanyahu announced plans to occupy the so-called Philadelphi Corridor. Egypt said that an Israeli military presence there would violate the 1979 peace<\/a> treaty between the two countries.<\/p>\n This week, the Israeli military announced that it had seized \u201ctactical control\u201d of the corridor. Yet despite the Egyptian government facing domestic pressure to take a harsher stance on Israel following its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, there has been no public Egyptian comment on the seizure of the corridor.<\/p>\n The silence may be a reflection of the dilemma Egypt finds itself in after nearly eight months of war in Gaza.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Egypt and Israel view their relationship as a cornerstone of their national security, according to former Israeli and Egyptian officials, making it unlikely the Egyptian government would take substantial steps against Israel. Peace between Egypt and Israel has been an anchor of Middle East stability for 45 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ezzedine Fishere, a former Egyptian diplomat, said in an interview Thursday that Egypt has hewed to a doctrine of keeping the relationship with Israel stable and protecting it \u201cfrom the inevitable crises that come from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEgypt has been consistent in trying to shield this relationship and minimize the impact of the conflict,\u201d Mr. Fishere said.<\/p>\n The Egyptian economy<\/a>, fragile even before the war, has been hit by a collapse in traffic through the Suez Canal, losing billions of dollars in revenue because of ships diverted by Houthi attacks in or near the Red Sea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Egypt\u2019s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is alarmed by the prospect of Gazan refugees streaming across its border, is sensitive to the outrage in Egypt and across the Arab world to Israel\u2019s bloody Gaza campaign, and is wary of the influence of Islamist groups like Hamas. Hamas grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that Mr. el-Sisi ousted from power in a 2013 coup.<\/p>\n While expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, Egypt\u2019s government has also cracked down on dissent at home. According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, 120 people have been detained against the backdrop of pro-Palestinian protests in the country, of whom around 30 were ultimately released.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Israeli military has said it advanced into the border zone in an attempt to choke off Hamas\u2019s ability to smuggle munitions into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt. Egypt has strenuously rejected that claim, saying that over the past decade it has destroyed 1,500 tunnels and fortified the wall between Gaza and Egypt.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s move into the corridor this week was part of the Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which has prompted more than one million Palestinians, most of them already displaced from their homes, to flee the city, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Former enemies who fought several wars from 1948 to 1973, Israel and Egypt have clashed diplomatically over the Israeli campaign in Gaza, particularly over Israel\u2019s Rafah offensive. But Egyptian and Israeli authorities now coordinate closely on security, with defense officials regularly meeting in Cairo and Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n \u201cThe security people will keep talking to the security people,\u201d Mr. Fishere said. \u201cThe border will be managed jointly, and the communication continues. Both sides know that it\u2019s in their interest.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, those ties are now being put under considerable strain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In early May, Israel captured the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, a vital portal for food and other goods, and it has been closed since then. Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian officials have wrangled over who is to blame for the closure and how to resume operations there.<\/p>\n Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster, reported on Thursday night<\/a> that Israel and Egypt had agreed in principle to reopen the crossing, but the most fundamental question, who would operate it on the Gaza side, remained unanswered. The report could not immediately be confirmed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Moreover, analysts say the prospect of Israeli forces conducting intense military operations so close to Egyptian soil has worried Egyptian and Israeli officials, who prefer to keep their militaries as separate as possible.<\/p>\n On Monday, at least one Egyptian soldier was killed in a shooting incident<\/a> with Israeli forces near the Rafah crossing \u2014 the kind of clash that could inflame public opinion. Both sides say they are investigating the incident, and Egypt\u2019s government and its tightly-controlled news media have downplayed it.<\/p>\n Egyptian officials also warned for months against Israel\u2019s military offensive in Rafah, saying it could be catastrophic for civilians in Gaza.<\/p>\n