ALBAWABA - The Israeli army reportedly said on Sunday that dozens of Hamas tunnels were discovered in the Philadelphia Corridor in Rafah.
According to Israeli forces' allegation, one of the tunnels goes three meters high. However, an Egyptian official denied the claim by Israel about the existence of operational tunnels beneath the border area with the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Qahera News channel cited an Egyptian source who said that the allegations made by Israel "are an attempt to divert attention away from its failures in Gaza and to justify its aggression."
"Israel has not provided evidence of operational tunnels along the Gaza border and is leveraging the existence of closed tunnels in Gaza to disseminate false claims for political purposes," the source added.
Following the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza on October 13, the army was able to take control of the Philadelphia Corridor, a demilitarized area between Egypt and Gaza, in May, and last Sunday it made a claim about the existence of dozens of tunnels underground.
Nonetheless, Gazan Writer and Analyst Muhammad Shehada posted on X saying: "The tunnels Israel is "discovering" in the Philadelphia corridor in Rafah are OLD, out of use & were already sealed/flooded by Egypt a decade ago."
He continued: "Israel knows this too well, but is desperately presenting these "discoveries" as 'victories'."
Michael Hanna, Director of the US Program at Crisis Group, responded to Shehada's X post and added: "I have also heard this directly from a U.S. official."
