Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on May 29 that it had established “operational control” over the entire so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Speaking in a press conference, military Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the now-captured strip of land, which runs for a total of 14 kilometers all along the Gaza-Egypt border, served as “Hamas’s oxygen pipeline” for smuggling weapons.
Along the corridor, adjacent to the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the IDF said it has located so far some 20 tunnels that cross into Egypt. Some of the tunnels were already known to the IDF, and others were discovered for the first time. Some have already been demolished, and Israel has also been updating Egypt on the developments.
Another 82 tunnel shafts leading into the tunnels have been located along the Philadelphi Corridor area, according to the IDF.
Israeli troops are now physically located in most of the corridor. There is however a small section near the coast where ground forces are not present, but the IDF noted that it is controlling the area with surveillance and firepower.
Dozens of rocket launchers were also uncovered along the corridor, some only a dozen meters away from the Egyptian border.
“Our troops located along the axis dozens of primed launchers for rocket attacks, launching pits used by Hamas to fire rockets and mortars at Israel,” Hagari said, adding that Hamas “took advantage of the Philadelphi area, took advantage of it and built its infrastructure just dozens of meters from the border with Egypt, so that we won’t strike there.”
The rocket launchers were located between 10 and 40 meters from the Egyptian border, “in a way that Israel won’t strike there on the fence with Egypt,” the spokesman added, noting that some 70 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel from the Rafah area in recent weeks.
The capture of the Philadelphi Corridor was without a doubt an achievement for the IDF. However, faced with fierce resistance from Hamas and other Palestinian armed factions in Gaza Israel may not be able to keep its troops there.
On May 30, the IDF acknowledged that a soldier was killed during fighting in northern Gaza a day earlier. The soldier served in the Paratrooper Brigade’s 101st Battalion. Another soldier of the same unit was seriously wounded in the incident.
The death of the soldier brought the toll of slain Israeli troops in the IDF’s ground operations in Gaza and in operations on the border to 292.
Recent Israeli losses were not limited to Gaza. Also on May 29, two soldiers from the Kfir Brigade’s Nahshon Battalion were killed in a car-ramming attack near the Itamar settlement close to the Palestinian city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
The suspected attacker reportedly turned himself over to the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, after fleeing into Nablus.
Overall, the war on Gaza is still far from being over. Israel continues to take losses on a nearly daily basis. Meanwhile, despite the death of more than 36,000 Palestinians Hamas and other factions in the Strip are still putting up fierce resistance.
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the morons in my nato colonies all lick diek
snicker,hehe…sure,they have no bottom anymore,u.s.prerry much castrated the european union when it rammed it up their pipeline (nordstream) hello! .. they’ve all gotten in line for uncle joe’s hormone therapy. for his all e.u euro-eunich castrato choir.sing everyone
good luck to the hooked noses. they will have to occupy this area meaning more deaths and losses as they are spread thin
thanks, don’t need it. we have yhw on our side.
not some made up dog god that crashes your chopper.
thanks but no thanks.
sore losers… lol
you have an age old mental illness on your side
keep on trucking,my fine felted fiend…by your own tongue you will betray yourself..you & all your wehrmacht wannabe’s..
how do you like that?
again, this striking determination to believe zionist claims as regards their casualties.. perhaps some staff members have been too long working for western media. likewise zionist claims regarding tunnels – given they couldn’t adequately destroy them in north/central gaza, why would they be any more effective in the south?
idk,but if i were a betting man or even any semi sentient being , i’d have noticed that every single sentence uttered by an zionist military official has been a complete fabrication! as if they were actors from a comedy troupe portraying blithering idiots whose blooper reel is filled with such hits as “this hospital is a terror base with tunnels under,so we must blow up the whole thing. yes, with the patients inside they may be hamas fighters! the medical equipment yes it’s gotta go
idk anyone who believes that bs ,except american and zionists
the just in,the idf,will now be known as idfkwtf…mommy!