Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels

Intense shelling and gunfire rocked Rafah in southern Gaza on Thursday, after Israel declared it had seized a strategic corridor along the Palestinian territory's border with Egypt.

Israel launched its military incursion into Rafah in early May despite international objections over the safety of civilians sheltering in the city.

In addition to taking control of the corridor, Israel has intensified its incursion into Rafah

The Israeli army has announced that it controls the strategic zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor. This area spans 8 kilometers and, in some places, is more than 100 meters wide. The military claims to have discovered 20 tunnels used by the radical Palestinian group Hamas to smuggle weapons into Gaza.

The Israeli army has publicly acknowledged the initiation of a groundbreaking strategy to counter the threat posed by Hamas through the flooding of the vast network of tunnels beneath Gaza. These tunnels have been a crucial infrastructure for Hamas, utilized for attacks, weapons storage, and even holding Israeli hostages.

These details and new information about the tunnels underscore why the tunnels were considered a major threat to the Israeli military

Clearing the tunnels is an important part of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in response to the deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7

Egypt has opened the Rafah border crossing with Gaza for the entire Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi announced on Twitter, in what would be the longest uninterrupted period of time since 2013.

Egypt kept its Rafah border crossing with Gaza open for a third day on Dec. 23, state media said, after nearly 2,000 people used the terminal in the first two days.