In a statement on Monday, Egyptian authorities firmly denied the presence of operational tunnels along its border with Gaza, accusing Israel of propagating false claims due to its inability to achieve any significant outcomes in the region.
A high-ranking Egyptian source stated, “Israel has failed to provide any evidence of active tunnels at the border, instead exploiting closed tunnels in Gaza to disseminate misleading claims for political ends.”
The source further criticized Israeli media reports about the tunnels as baseless. “There is no truth to the Israeli media’s narratives regarding active tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip,” they asserted.
Highlighting Israel’s broader regional strategy, the official accused it of overlooking weapon smuggling from Israel to the West Bank as a pretext to seize more land and escalate its violence against Palestinians.
“Israel’s failure to accomplish anything in Gaza is driving its propagation of tunnel claims to justify its ongoing aggression on the strip,” the official added.
Conversely, the Israeli military announced on Sunday that it had discovered dozens of tunnel tracks near the Egyptian border in the Philadelphia Corridor, claiming that its 162 Division and the Yahalom (special engineering unit) have been actively locating and destroying these subterranean paths over recent months.
During an operation last week in the Philadelphia Corridor, the forces uncovered a three-meter high tunnel, with images released by the Israeli military showing a military vehicle emerging from the discovered tunnel.
The military stated that they would continue to study and neutralize the identified tunnel and other tracks, with plans to destroy all underground infrastructure in the area.
The Philadelphia Corridor, also known as the Salah al-Din Axis, stretches from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south along the Egyptian border, spanning approximately 14 kilometers.
Designated as a “buffer zone” in the 1979 peace treaty, Israel fully withdrew from the Philadelphia Corridor in 2005 as part of its disengagement plan from Gaza.
