RSS
The Philadelphi Corridor: How Hamas Smuggles Terror Into Gaza
An Israeli police officer stands next to the remains of a rocket after rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian Islamist terrorist group Hamas, in Herzliya, Israel May 26 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Nir Elias
Just 300 feet wide and stretching eight miles from Israel’s border to the Mediterranean, the narrow strip separating Egypt and Gaza, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, is once again the focus of intense political debate.
Established under the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, the corridor was designed as a critical buffer to prevent the smuggling of weapons and materials into Gaza for terrorist activities. However, after Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005, control of the Egyptian side of the corridor was handed over to Cairo, which promised to prevent trafficking and incursions. Despite these assurances, the corridor has become a vital channel for Hamas to sustain its terror operations.
The extensive network of tunnels beneath the corridor — often called the “Gaza subway” — has allowed Hamas to smuggle weapons, personnel, and other materials.
From a security standpoint, the Philadelphi Corridor is essential to Israel’s efforts to neutralize Hamas’ capabilities. The tunnels have enabled the group not only to maintain but also expand its terror infrastructure, allowing it to continue launching attacks on Israel. By reasserting control over the corridor, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) aim to dismantle this underground network and prevent future smuggling operations.
Philadelphi Corridor. Photo: Hamzé Attar via Twitter/X.
Despite Egypt’s public denials about the existence of smuggling tunnels beneath the Philadelphi Corridor, security experts agree that it is the primary conduit for weapons destined for Hamas. Both Egypt and Hamas strongly oppose Israel’s control over the corridor.
The Philadelphi Corridor is more than just a buffer zone; it is Hamas’ last link to obtaining the materials needed to keep its war effort alive, as well as to rearm and regroup. It is also a crucial route for the international travel of senior Hamas officials.
Israel’s intelligence on these tunnels is well-documented, yet Egypt continues to deny their existence, insisting they were destroyed in previous operations.
On August 22, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that 150 tunnels along the Egypt-Gaza border had been destroyed and emphasized ongoing efforts to eliminate those that remain.
Israel’s recent requests for Egyptian military units to relocate away from the Gaza border, allowing for greater IDF control, have been rejected by Cairo. Currently, the IDF monitors Gaza’s northern, eastern, and western borders. Securing the southern border via the Philadelphi Corridor would pave the way for the complete demilitarization of the Hamas-run enclave.
The Media’s Philadelphi Tunnel Vision
Only after Israel gained control of the Philadelphi Corridor did international media outlets begin to more prominently cover the crossing’s strategic significance. While many outlets have acknowledged how Hamas has long exploited the border to bolster its terror infrastructure in Gaza, few have focused on why Israel deems it crucial to maintain a long-term presence in the area.
The New York Times serves as a clear example. In a section explaining why the corridor “matters” to Israel, the article noted that “Hamas had dug tunnels beneath the strip—some wide enough for trucks, according to military experts—and used them to smuggle weapons and personnel into Gazan territory.”
However, under the subheading about why it matters to Egypt, the Times fails to mention one important point: Cairo’s control of the Philadelphi Corridor has been an abject failure in terms of stymying the flow of weapons and other supplies into Gaza.
Israel wants a role along the Philadelphi Corridor because the Hamas tunnel network has continued to expand under Egypt’s watch. While Egypt shares an interest in destroying Hamas’ capabilities, it continues to deny that there’s a problem it hasn’t been able to solve.
In January, Diaa Rashwan, chairman of Egypt’s State Information Service, denied there was smuggling into Gaza from Egypt, saying that any Israeli move to control the corridor would undermine Egyptian-Israeli relations. He also claimed that more than 1,500 tunnels had been removed and that the border fence with Gaza had been reinforced with a concrete wall.
The IDF’s recent discovery and destruction of 150 more tunnels undermines this assurance.
This crucial detail is often missing from media reports, which instead imply that Israel’s interest in the corridor is merely a land grab.
For example, an Associated Press explainer questioned why Israel is “demanding control” of Philadelphi, without fully addressing the security concerns that underpin Israel’s position.
Explaining why Hamas and Egypt are opposed, the AP states: “[Israeli control] would also be seen by many Palestinians as a prelude to a lasting military occupation and the return of Jewish settlements — something Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have openly called for.”
For many in the media, everything Israel does is seen as a cover for another action — in this case, a prelude to territorial expansion. It’s almost as if there’s an inherent media bias against Israel.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post The Philadelphi Corridor: How Hamas Smuggles Terror Into Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.