Posted on 09/13/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Shai Levi, the military correspondent for the Mako news site, revealed that some of the tunnels located on the Philadelphi Corridor were not blocked on the Egyptian side as the IDF spokesperson claimed.
He noted that the tunnels were indeed blocked by the IDF, but "the claim that the outdoor tunnels, some of them, were blocked before the war, is not true."
He wrote: "The IDF and the defense establishment do not want you to know that the publication by Brigadier General Itzik Cohen and the IDF spokesman about the tunnels under Philadelphi was false. Not all tunnels were blocked. They know and I know."
Earlier, Levi wrote a tweet on the subject, but it was deleted at the request of sources whose names he did not specify.
Yesterday, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced that the 162nd Division had "dismantled" the Hamas Rafah Brigade and destroyed approximately 13 kilometers of underground tunnel routes. Over 200 underground tunnels were located in the area of the Philadelphi Corridor.
According to the IDF, nine tunnels that were found crossed into Egyptian territory but were found to be blocked and unusable, a claim contradicted by Shai Levi. Following the IDF's spokesperson's claim, Haaretz reported that the security establishment is unaware of any Hamas plot to smuggle hostages through the Egyptian border as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned.