The Israeli military said late Wednesday it had gained “tactical control” of the Philadelphia Corridor, a sensitive area along Gaza’s border with Egypt, in a move that could further strain already strained relations between Israel and Cairo.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the area was “Hamas’ oxygen pipeline” and that the Palestinian militant group had used it to “regularly smuggle arms into the Gaza Strip.” Hamas also built tunnels near the Egyptian border, believing Israel would not dare launch an attack so close to Egyptian territory, he said.
Israeli officials say capturing the narrow strip of land, roughly nine miles long, is crucial to preventing Hamas from rearming itself through cross-border smuggling. “It has to be in our hands; it has to be closed,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters in December when asked if Israel still intended to seize the area.
An Israeli military official briefing reporters on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said troops had discovered at least 20 tunnels from Gaza to Egypt, some of which were discovered recently.
But briefing reporters late Wednesday, Admiral Hajari stopped short of claiming the tunnels crossed the border.
“I cannot say now that all these tunnels lead to Egypt,” he said. “We will check and pass on the intelligence” to Egypt. He added that Gaza’s tunnel shafts “are located near the Egyptian border, including inside buildings and homes.” “We will investigate and deal with every single one of them.”
Following Israel’s announcement, Egypt’s state-run al-Qaeda news channel quoted an unnamed senior official as saying that claims of tunnels along the border were “baseless.”
“These lies reflect the severity of the crisis facing the Israeli government,” the official said, adding that “Israel continues to try to spread lies about the situation on the ground of its troops in Rafah in order to cover up its military failures and find a way out of its political crisis.”
