Linux Kernel IP Forward activated, firewalld is bypassed?

On a Linux Centos7, I have some traffic that is routed with static routes from one interface to another.

I did notice that with firewalld activated, both interfaces added in a zone, and nothing allowed in this zone, all the traffic is still routed without any restriction.

I tried to configure ip_forward=0 : then the traffic was not routed anymore. Then I added FORWARD rules in firewalld direct.xml : the traffic was routed and filtered.

My questions are :

• Does ip_forward kernel setting "bypass" firewalld?
• Why is it explained on various forums that ip_forward is mandatory to route traffic from one interface to another, if using an iptable FORWARD works with this setting disabled?

I found very few explanations on the relations between firewalld and kernel ip_forward, and I would like to understand what I'm missing here

EDIT : masquerade is enabled on the firewalld zone

EDIT2 : I did other tests, and it looks like this is not about ip_filter setting, but the masquerade. I was tricked by the fact that "firewall-cmd --reload" force ip_forward to 1.

Here is how to reproduce my case:

Fresh Centos7 OS. Configuration of two interfaces eth1 and eth2 with ip adresses X and Y

-----------------> @X CENTOS @Y -----------------> @Z  -------
    dst_IP = A                      dst_IP = A
    src_IP = B                      dst_IP = B

edit /etc/firewalld/zones/TEST.xml, add the two interfaces, activate masquerade.

add a route as following :

Destination     Gateway     GenMask
A               Z           255.255.255.255

Then activate ip forward an deactivate rp_filter :

sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
sysctl net.ipv4.conf.eth1.rp_filter=2
sysctl net.ipv4.conf.eth2.rp_filter=2

In this setup, paquets are transferred to @Z, but there is no rule in firewalld configured to accept them, and I don't understand why