(NewsSpace.com) – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been hard at work in pursuit of Hamas militants for the past several months. They recently convened on Rafah, hoping to drive the remaining militants out and eliminate them once and for all. The Israeli military recently announced it had gained control of a massive arms smuggling tunnel.
The announcement came on Wednesday, May 29, as Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the IDF captured 20 tunnels in Gaza. The passageways, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, which border Rafah and Egypt, were reportedly used to smuggle weapons into the city.
The IDF also said they secured launch pits that were loaded with rockets aimed at Israeli territory. Hagari said the corridor was located “just dozens of meters from the border with Egypt” as a precautionary measure that IDF would not attack it. He further alleged that Hamas had fired 70 rockets and mortars from the area in Rafah.
Now that they’ve located the tunnels, Hagari said the Israeli military is in the process of neutralizing them. He described the recent infrastructure the IDF discovered underground, measuring just under a mile long. He said it “branched into several sub-routes” and provided Hamas with a way to navigate undetected. Further, inside the IDF reportedly found Ak-47s, explosives, anti-tank missiles, and more. If true, that means Israel now controls all of the land borders surrounding Gaza.
There were claims that the tunnels went into Egypt, something Hagari said he couldn’t confirm, but during the course of discovery, the IDF would share intelligence with the neighboring country. Sources in Egypt, on the other hand, say the tunnels do not cross into its land and pointed the finger at Israel for trying to justify its presence in Rafah and “export lies about on-the-ground conditions for its forces” so that it could escape “its political crisis.”
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