Joshua 13 stresses that the land of the Philistines that Joshua was supposed to conquer “are accounted Canaanite (la-kena’ani teichashev)” (13:3). Despite the fact that it was in Philistine hands, from a legal perspective it was part of the land of the Canaanites (who “dwell by the Sea and along the Jordan” [Numbers 13:29]) and it was designated for Israel even in the framework of the “limited” borders of the land. In our Parsha, the Torah stresses that the Avvim – the early Philistines who lived in the land during the Patriarchal age – are no longer there; in their place dwell the Caphtorim, who came from Crete. The reason for this emphasis is seemingly the covenant that Abraham and Isaac forged with King Abimelech of the Philistines and Phicol, chief of his troops: “That you will not deal falsely with me or with my kith and kin” (Genesis 21:23). The verse informs us that the land of the Avvim was already conquered by the Caphtorim, and thus the people of Israel are permitted to go to war with the current Philistines – as they are actually the Caphtorim, who were unrelated to Abimelech.
