Weekly Commentary: Disaster If Israel Forgoes Continuous Operations Against Tunnels In Philadelphi Corridor

Dr. Aaron Lerner 4 July 2024

There are teams in Egypt right now equipped with Chinese tunnelling machines. They are already working around the clock preparing more smuggling tunnels crossing under the Philadelphi Corridor from the Egyptian Sinai to Gaza.

Hamas and its Iranian and other allies have also been working against the clock to come up with equipment and methods to cope with the Israeli innovations which have revolutionised tunnel warfare.

If we halt our operations in the Philadelphi Corridor those new tunnels will flood Gaza with weapons and ammunition to not only rejuvenate Hamas but also overcome our hard earned advantage in the field.

So when we talk about a “deal” with Hamas nomenclature is critical.

The “deal” must provide for continuous and unrestricted anti-tunnel operations in the Philadelphi Corridor.

That’s “operations” - not “presence”.

Because “presence” can have many interpretations:

Cameras with a live feed to Israel?

A handful of Israeli “monitors”?

A large force which can only survey the surface?

A force permitted to drill core samples in search of evidence of tunnels to report to some authority?

There’s all kinds of “presences” which would spell disaster.

We cannot afford destructive ambiguity.


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