According to Israeli media reports, Israel’s military has taken control of the entire section of the Gaza Strip along the border with Egypt.
Israeli troops are stationed in most of the area known as the Philadelphia Corridor, several media outlets reported on Wednesday evening, citing the army. When asked, the military said it was investigating the reports.
There are around 20 tunnels in the approximately 14-kilometer-long area that lead to Egypt, the reports said. Hamas has used tunnels to smuggle weapons into the coastal strip. Some of the tunnels have been destroyed, according to the reports. Israel has also informed its neighboring country Egypt about this.
According to the information, there are a total of 82 tunnel shafts in the area. Israel’s military has also discovered dozens of Hamas rocket launchers along the Philadelphia Corridor. The information could not initially be independently verified.
At the beginning of May, Israeli troops advanced into parts of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. They took over the only border crossing to Egypt on the Palestinian side.
Israel’s deployment in Rafah has been heavily criticized internationally because hundreds of thousands of Palestinian internally displaced people are staying there.