Israel’s military has announced that it has taken control of the Philadelphi Corridor, a strategically significant buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border, effectively controlling Gaza’s entire land border.
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed that approximately 20 tunnels used by Hamas to transfer weapons into Gaza had been discovered within the zone.
According to Egyptian TV, sources denied this and claimed Israel was attempting to legitimize its military action in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.
The announcement comes at a time of increased tensions with Egypt.
“In recent days, IDF troops established operational control on the Philadelphi Corridor, on the border between Egypt and Rafah,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday.
He described the corridor as a “lifeline” for Hamas, through which the group “regularly smuggled weapons into the Gaza Strip”.
He said troops were “investigating.. and neutralizing” tunnels found in the area.
Hagari later said in a briefing with reporters that he could not be sure that all of the tunnels crossed into Egypt, the New York Times reported.
The Philadelphi Corridor is a buffer zone, only about 100m (330ft) wide in parts, which runs along the Gaza side of the 13km (8-mile) border with Egypt. Gaza’s only other land border is with Israel itself.
Egypt has previously said it had destroyed cross-border tunnels, making any weapons smuggling impossible.
Israel has insisted that it must take Rafah to achieve victory in the war triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on the country on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 others were taken hostage.
At least 36,170 people have been killed across Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Tensions between Egypt and Israel have heightened since Israeli forces took control of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing point three weeks ago as part of their offensive against Hamas.
An altercation involving Egyptian and Israeli troops in the border region close to Rafah earlier this week resulted in the death of an Egyptian soldier.
Egypt is a fervent advocate for the Palestinian cause and has denounced Israel’s military offensive in Gaza as well as the thousands of civilians Israel has killed during the conflict.
Similar to Israel, Egypt has kept its border with Gaza closed since Hamas took power in 2006. An offshoot of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt forbids as a terrorist organization, is Hamas.
To try to achieve a ceasefire agreement and the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas, Egypt has maintained open lines of communication with the organization and served as a mediator in intermittent indirect discussions between Israel and the group.
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