|
2024-05-30 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
|
|
Israel in control of 75% of buffer zone along Gaza-Egypt border
|
[GEO.TV] Israel's military was in control of 75% of the Phildelphi corridor, a buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Wednesday.
"Inside Gaza, the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is now in control of 75% of the Philadelphi corridor and I believe it will be in control of it all with time. Together with the Egyptians, we must ensure weapon smuggling is prevented," he told Israel's public broadcaster Kan.
Hanegbi added that he expected fighting in Gaza to continue throughout 2024 at least.
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 in the Philadelphi Corridor area, according to the military.
IDF troops are now physically located in most of the corridor. There is a small section near the coast where ground forces are not present, but the IDF said it is controlling the area with surveillance and firepower.
Dozens of rocket launchers were also discovered along the corridor, some only a dozen meters from the Egypt border. The IDF said it believes Hamas
 ..always the voice of sweet reason...
positioned the rocket launchers along the corridor in an attempt to prevent Israel from striking them, thinking Israel would fear overshooting into Egypt.
"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.
Hagari said 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," Hagari said, noting that some 70 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel from the Rafah area in recent weeks.
The existence of cross-border tunnels between Egypt and the Strip has long been a matter of public record, including a highly shared 2013 New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
article about the cottage industry of fast food deliveries through the "the scores of tunnels" controlled by Hamas.
Egypt itself has worked for years to thwart the cross-border tunnel network, blowing them up, flooding them with water, pumping toxic gas inside and even razing homes along the border to establish a buffer zone, but many were still believed to remain.
Asked whether the development would cross the US’ red line regarding a major military offensive in Rafah, the White House indicated Wednesday that it would not.
"When [Israel] briefed us on their plans for Rafah, it did include moving along that corridor and out of the city proper to put pressure on Hamas in the city," White House national security front man John Kirby told news hounds in a briefing.
He declined to confirm that Israel had indeed seized all of the Philadelphi Corridor, saying, "It’s not our op." However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
he said the move would be consistent with the "limited" ground operation that Israeli officials briefed the US on ahead of time.
US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass. ...
warned earlier this month that he would halt certain offensive weapons shipments to Israel if the IDF launched a major military offensive in populated parts of Gaza’s southernmost city.
The IDF said Wednesday that it recently demolished a "significant" Hamas tunnel near the Rafah Border Crossing. According to the military, troops reached a tunnel shaft, some 100 meters from the border crossing with Egypt, following intelligence on its location. The shaft led to an underground network, about a kilometer and a half long, which the IDF said was used by Hamas operatives to attack troops operating in the area. Troops raided the tunnel, locating weapons, including anti-tank missiles, guns, and bombs, according to the military.
The IDF said the network had many branching paths at different depths, and some areas were blocked with blast doors. It also featured rooms where Hamas operatives would reside, as well as bathrooms. The tunnel network was later demolished, the IDF added.
Israeli troops first moved into Rafah several weeks ago, following months of international warnings against entering the area, where more than half of Gazooks had taken refuge after being displaced by months of fighting elsewhere in the Strip. The IDF urged those in the area to evacuate, pointing them toward designated safe zones, and a UN official said Monday that more than 1 million Paleostinians had left the city so far this month.
Visiting troops in the city on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that dismantling Hamas’s battalions there is a top priority for the country.
"We are here for several reasons. Firstly, this is the last [Hamas] Brigade left with full capabilities, so we want to dismantle the Rafah Brigade," Halevi said, adding that dismantling Hamas’s battalions is a "national mission of the State of Israel."
Three IDF soldiers were killed on Tuesday by a blast in a booby-trapped building in Rafah. All three served in the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion. Their deaths brought the toll of slain troops in the IDF’s ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and amid operations along the border to 291. 
|
Posted by Fred 2024-05-30 00:00||
||
Front Page|| [11137 views ]
Top
File under: Hamas
|
|
Posted by Skidmark 2024-05-30 10:30||
2024-05-30 10:30||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by BrerRabbit 2024-05-30 15:43||
2024-05-30 15:43||
Front Page
Top
|
|
09:43 Mullah Richard
09:27 Warthog
09:11 Mercutio
09:07 AlmostAnonymous5839
08:52 Matt
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
07:22 NN2N1
07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker
07:03 NN2N1
06:58 NN2N1
06:58 Besoeker
|
