- author, Katherine Armstrong
- role, BBC News
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Israeli forces have said they have taken control of a strategically important buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border known as the Philadelphia Corridor, meaning they now control Gaza’s entire land border.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said about 20 tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip had been discovered in the area.
Egyptian television cited sources who denied the allegation and said Israel was trying to justify its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The announcement comes at a time of rising tensions with Egypt.
“Over the past few days, the IDF has established operational control of the Philadelphia Corridor on Egypt’s border with Rafah,” IDF spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday.
He said the corridor was a “lifeline” for Hamas, which “regularly smuggles weapons into the Gaza Strip” through it.
He said troops were “investigating and neutralising” tunnels discovered in the area.
Haghari later told reporters he wasn’t sure if all the tunnels led to Egypt, according to The New York Times.
The Philadelphia Corridor is a buffer zone just 100 meters (330 feet) wide in parts that runs along the Gaza side of the 13-kilometer (8-mile) border with Egypt. Gaza’s only other land border is with Israel.
Egypt had previously said it had destroyed the cross-border tunnels, making it impossible to smuggle weapons across the border.
A “senior” Egyptian source quoted by Al-Kahera News also accused Israel of “using these allegations to justify the continuation of its operations against the Palestinian city of Rafah and to prolong the war for political purposes.”
Israel says it needs to take Rafah to win the war that began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that left some 1,200 people dead and 252 taken hostage.
At least 36,170 people have been killed across the Gaza Strip since the conflict began, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Tensions between Egypt and Israel have been rising since Israeli forces seized the Gaza side of the Rafah checkpoint three weeks ago as part of an offensive against Hamas.
Egypt is a strong supporter of the Palestinians and has condemned Israel’s military operation in Gaza and its killing of thousands of civilians in the war.
Like Israel, Egypt has kept its border with Gaza closed since Hamas, an offshoot of the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, came to power in 2006. Hamas is banned in Egypt as a terrorist organisation.
However, Egypt maintains a negotiating channel with Hamas and acts as a middleman in intermittent indirect talks between Israel and Hamas aimed at reaching a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Image source, Getty Images
