Dozens of Hamas tunnels are apparently hidden in the ground under the corridor Philadelphia, as the fortified border between Egypt and Gaza is called. What is this corridor and why in Israel they think that the war for Gaza is just beginning.
The order of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations was extremely clear - for Israel to immediately stop its offensive in Rafah. However, the military reality is completely different, writes ARD. The Israeli army continues to move further inland. And army spokesman Daniel Hagari even spoke of a “strategically important success”.
Smuggling arms to Hamas
“In recent days, Israel has taken control of the Philadelphia Corridor along the border between Egypt and Rafah,”, Hagari announced. According to him, this part of the Gaza Strip was the “lifeline” of Hamas, through which the regular supplies of weapons to the terrorists were smuggled.
From Israel's point of view, this is really a huge success, ARD explains. In the territory of the 14-kilometer buffer zone between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, there are numerous tunnels, through which weapons supplies to Hamas probably passed. This clearly helped Hamas maintain and increase its military power.
Dozens of Hamas tunnels
There are dozens of tunnels under the Philadelphia Corridor - along the border between Gaza and Egypt. Mika Freed, the head of the Israeli company “Geoscope”, which is investigating the tunnel system in the Gaza Strip on behalf of the army, recently saw them with his own eyes, notes ARD. According to him, there are at least 50 tunnels leading from Rafah to Egypt.
The expert explains that he is cooperating with an American company, as he does not have the right to explore the tunnels on the Egyptian side of the border. The goal is to discover and explore them - how deep they are, what their sizes are.
“The real battle for Gaza is just beginning”
The specialist has no right to disclose details of the research that his company is doing. However, he says that the tunnels are many and at different depths - in some cases four or five tunnels one above the other.
Jacques Neria, a long-time Israeli military intelligence official, believes that taking control of the Philadelphia Corridor is a turning point in Israel's war against Hamas. “This means that the real battle for Gaza is actually just beginning,”, Neria told ARD. However, he believes that the further the Israeli army moves into Rafah, the less likely it is that a deal will be made to release the hostages.
Increasingly fierce battles?
The battle for Rafah is now likely to become even more fierce. 33 children from the SOS Kinderdorf children's settlement in the city experienced it first hand, who had to be evacuated because several bombs fell near the settlement, writes ARD. SOS Children's Villages global network spokesman Boris Breyer said everyone is “shocked, sad and outraged” because it has become clear that even a place that is unequivocally designated as a humanitarian center is not protected from the fighting.
„Moving a large group of children to another place during a war is an extremely risky undertaking, and it is also terrifying for the children themselves,”, explained Breyer. The children and workers from the settlement have now been transferred to the central part of the Gaza Strip, where it is safer for now. But will it stay that way?