Israel has effectively extended its control over Gaza’s entire land border after its military said it had “established operational control” of the strategic buffer zone separating the Strip from Egypt.
The nine-mile-wide corridor, codenamed the “Philadelphia Corridor” by the Israeli military, was until Wednesday Gaza’s only land border not directly controlled by Israel, which has stepped up attacks on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, killing dozens of Palestinians.
“The Philadelphia Corridor served as an oxygen conduit for Hamas, which it regularly used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said at a news conference, referring to the militant group Israel has been trying to eliminate for the past eight months in preparation for the Oct. 7 offensive.
Hagari did not specify what the Israeli military meant by “operational control.” Egyptian state broadcaster Al-Kahera News reported that Israel’s claim that it had found 20 Hamas tunnels in the corridor was untrue.
The Israeli-controlled corridor was long intended to be a demilitarized zone between Gaza and Egypt. Hamas has controlled the corridor since seizing control of the coast in 2007. Hamas built the tunnels to circumvent the Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Some of the tunnels are wide enough to allow smuggling of vehicles and commercial construction materials. Israeli authorities also claim that Hamas used the tunnels to smuggle weapons used in the October 7 attack on southern Israel.
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A recent investigation by the Middle East Eye news agency, citing classified military documents, found that Egyptian military engineers have destroyed more than 2,000 tunnels connecting Gaza with Egypt since 2011.
Egypt has been battling local militants linked to the Islamic State on its side of the border for over a decade, and at one point Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered the military to carry out a feasibility study on digging a canal along the entire border with Gaza, according to an investigation by MEE.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday that Israel’s seizure of the Philadelphia corridor was consistent with a briefing Israeli officials had given President Joe Biden’s team about a “limited” operational plan in Rafah. “That operation included moving along that corridor,” Kirby said.
Meanwhile, Israeli national security adviser Tsahi Hanegbi, a senior Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Israeli media on Wednesday that Israel’s war against Hamas could continue until the end of the year.
“It may take seven more months of fighting to consolidate our success and achieve what we define as the destruction of Hamas’ power and military strength,” Hanegbi said.
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire and the return of hostages held by Hamas appear to have stalled. These talks are being mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.
