Egypt had blocked Gaza cross-border tunnels before 7 October, says Israeli army

An Israeli army investigation has found that the nine tunnels that cross the Gaza border into Sinai had been blocked by Egypt prior to the 7 October Hamas-led attack and ensuing war, according to a military briefing. 

Haaretz reported that Israeli commander Itzik Cohen said on Thursday that his Division 162 had worked for three months to locate tunnels that crossed the Philadelphi Corridor buffer zone into Egypt, and that only nine were found.

None of the nine tunnels were believed to have been used for smuggling, contrary to repeated Israeli government claims that Hamas smuggled weapons from Egypt for use during the 7 October attack.

According to the latest assessment by the Israeli army, most of the weapons production took place in the Gaza Strip, with the materials Hamas used smuggled above ground through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings, Haaretz reported.

Egypt has denied the existence of any operational tunnels between Sinai and Gaza. 

Middle East Eye earlier this year published secret military documents revealing that more than 2,000 cross-border tunnels were destroyed by Egyptian military engineers in the border city of Rafah between 2011 and 2015.

A document dated 5 February 2015, signed by Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Fawzy Abdelaziz, puts the number of tunnels destroyed between August 2011 and February 2015 at 2,121.

In 2018, an Egypt military spokesperson said some of the tunnels destroyed reached a depth of 30 metres underground.

Diaa Rashwan, a government spokesperson, said Egypt had also built a concrete wall along the entire border, six metres overground and six metres underground, which he said made it “impossible to smuggle weapons”.

The Philadelphi Corridor is a 14km demilitarised strip between Egypt and Gaza that the Israeli military occupied in May, in contravention of agreements between Israel and Egypt.

Hamas insists that any deal that frees the Israeli captives it holds in Gaza must see Israeli troops withdraw from all of Gaza, including the Philadelphi Corridor.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that if his government agreed to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, Hamas could smuggle the Israeli captives out of Gaza into Egypt. 

“They could appear in Iran or Yemen,” he claimed, describing the buffer zone as the “lifeline” of Hamas. 

Israel’s seizure of the corridor in May included capturing the Rafah Crossing with Egypt, which had been jointly controlled by Palestinian and Egyptian authorities since 2005.

Middle East Eye has reported that Cairo insists the crossing should be managed by Palestinians.