May 30, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

The Israeli military says it has established “operational control” over the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border.

He said the military was conducting an operation at the corridor and that 20 tunnels it had found there were now being “neutralized.”

The IDF clarified that “operational control” meant it had “full control of the corridor in terms of intelligence gathering and fire range” even though there was a “small area near the sea where we are not physically present.”

Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli official said the troops had achieved “tactical” control over the corridor, but that did not mean “Israel had boots on the ground” along its entirety.

The official said the 20 tunnels crossed into Egypt, some of which are new, and Egypt has been informed. According to the official, the IDF also found 82 access points to tunnels along the corridor. 

CNN is unable to independently verify the Israeli claims of control.

Israel aims to cut off the corridor from Egypt as it believes smugglers have long turned to the enclave’s underground tunnel network to bring in commercial goods, people and weapons. Hagari said Hamas has used the corridor to smuggle arms and “took advantage” of the space to build infrastructure “tens of meters away from the border with Egypt so that we will not attack them.”

The IDF says it has also found “terrorist infrastructure” a mile long in east Rafah, the entrance to which is 100 meters from the Rafah crossing. Hagari said this route was used to transfer weapons and that the Israeli military found and destroyed weapons there.

Some context: Israel began a ground operation in Rafah against Hamas earlier this month, crossing the Philadelphi Corridor and seizing the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt.

Egypt has strongly opposed the operation at its border. On Monday, an Egyptian security personnel was killed on the border with Gaza in a shooting that involved Egyptian and Israeli soldiers. Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News outlet said “Palestinian resistance” fighters were also involved.