A senior Egyptian source accused Netanyahu of spreading lies “to cover up his failure in Gaza.” “The Israeli government has completely lost its internal and external credibility, which is why it promotes these lies,” he stressed to the Al-Qahera News network.

During a conference yesterday with foreign correspondents, Netanyahu defended the occupation of the so-called Philadelphia corridor to prevent the alleged entry of weapons and supplies into the Strip.

The axis is a strip of Palestinian land 100 meters wide and 14.5 kilometers long that runs parallel to the border between Gaza and Egypt, whose Government has warned that it will not tolerate Israeli soldiers there, because it represents a violation of the bilateral peace agreement, which was signed in 1979.

Although Israel promised to leave the area as part of a truce and a prisoner exchange, the authorities went back on their commitment, keeping the talks paralyzed.

Netanyahu showed tunnels allegedly built by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza used to smuggle weapons across the border. This was rejected by another Egyptian source, pointing out that in recent months the Israeli authorities failed to provide any evidence of operational corridors on the border. “Israel is making references to closed tunnels in Gaza to spread misleading news for political purposes,” the source noted.

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