Israel Defense Forces troops over the past month demolished no fewer than 50 tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the military revealed on Thursday.
“Forces of the [Combat Engineering Corps’] Yahalom [special operations] unit and 605th Battalion have been operating in the Philadelphi Corridor in Rafah for the past month,” the IDF said.
“As part of the engineering activities, the forces destroyed around 50 underground Hamas infrastructures,” the army added.
🎥IDF DRONE FOOTAGE of approx. 50 Hamas terrorist tunnels being dismantled in the area of the Philadelphi Corridor in Rafah this past week: pic.twitter.com/cjE1H03hv2
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 15, 2024
The Israeli military is ready to secure the Philadelphi Corridor regardless of the circumstances, the head of the armed forces said during a visit to the axis earlier on Wednesday.
“We are preparing options for whatever the political echelon decides,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said ahead of Thursday’s multilateral ceasefire talks in Doha, where security control of the 8.7-mile-long border area will be among the issues under discussion.
Israeli forces conquered the Philadelphi Corridor in May, locating and dismantling dozens of tunnels, including at least 25 that crossed into Egypt. The Hamas terrorist group has for years used the border to smuggle weapons and other materials into Gaza via a vast network of tunnels.
In early August, the IDF revealed that a 10-foot-high tunnel was discovered. The smuggling route—large enough for vehicles to drive through—was dug directly underneath an Egyptian army position on the border, according to photographs provided by the IDF.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to dispatch a high-ranking delegation to the Doha talks to secure the release of 115 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire in the war and the release of terrorists held in Israeli prisons.
The delegation is being led by Mossad chief David Barnea and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head Ronen Bar.
An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that Netanyahu “firmly stands by the principle that the IDF will physically remain in the Philadelphia Corridor.”
Jerusalem has maintained that Israeli military control of the corridor is crucial to ensuring that Hamas does not resupply and reestablish itself in Gaza, and Netanyahu has stated previously that any ceasefire agreement must include this stipulation.
Halevi said during a situational assessment in the Rafah area that the IDF “will know how to stay there and stay strong” if it is decided to maintain control of the border area, which stretches from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Kerem Shalom Crossing in the east.
“If it is decided that we monitor and raid whenever we have an indication [of enemy activity], we will know how to do that. We will know how to operate effectively,” Halevi said.
The IDF head was accompanied in Rafah by OC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, the commander of the 162nd Armored Division, Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, and other senior officers.
“I see our operational freedom in Gaza—look, we brought in the 98th Division a week ago, a little more than that. You see it: There is no place today in Gaza that your brigade combat team or battalion combat team can’t reach. There is no such place. There is no such place,” Halevi said.
“We know how to get anywhere fast, and this achievement must be preserved, this capability must be preserved,” the IDF chief said.
Earlier this month, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, head of the IDF’s Strategy and Third-Circle Directorate, said in a discussion with the Cabinet that the military is far from finishing its work in the Philadelphi Corridor and that it has strategic importance for the war against Hamas.
(Israel’s “third circle enemies” are those with which it doesn’t share a border, chief among them being Iran. The directorate is nicknamed “The Iran Command.”)
However, according to the Post report, Halevi believes that the IDF can electronically monitor the buffer zone without troops being positioned there.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk last month that Israel could withdraw troops from the corridor as part of a hostage deal.
“A solution is required that will stop smuggling attempts and will cut off potential supply for Hamas, and will enable the withdrawal of IDF troops from the corridor, as part of a framework for the release of hostages,” the defense minister said.
Gallant also told McGurk that Israel wants the Rafah border crossing to Sinai to reopen, but “will not tolerate the return of Hamas to the area.”
President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, sent McGurk to Cairo and Doha this week as part of Washington’s attempt to lower tensions in the region and advance ceasefire talks. While in the Egyptian capital, he will discuss finalizing security arrangements for the Gaza border, including the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah border crossing.
Sullivan sent envoy Amos Hochstein to Beirut. CIA Director William Burns will be in Doha.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was supposed to travel to the Middle East this week, including to Israel, Egypt and Qatar, according to Axios, which then reported his trip was postponed “due to the uncertainty about the situation.”