IDF’s engineering forces have uncovered about 90 tunnels of various types along the Philadelphi Corridor, a strategic area connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt, Walla reported on Thursday.

According to estimates by army officials, it is very likely that there are additional tunnels in the area that have not yet been located.

“The working assumption after October 7 is that we don’t know everything and therefore it’s possible that as the pressure increases due to the cessation of humanitarian aid, we will see more smuggling attempts of various kinds, such as drones, vessels and tunnels,” a security official said, noting that there are still cross-border tunnels that have not been blocked from an engineering standpoint but are under IDF control. Most of the tunnels were sealed with special concrete, some by explosion and some are under Israeli control for intelligence-engineering research purposes.

A senior security official estimated that if IDF forces were not present along the Philadelphi Corridor, Hamas would be operating existing smuggling tunnels, renovating old tunnels, or building new ones.

Information that reached the security establishment and was presented to Defense Minister Yisrael Katz indicates that Hamas is operating on a number of fronts, including receiving Iranian aid in order to infiltrate Israel again, as well as planning routes for smuggling weapons from Africa – with an emphasis on Sudan – and from there to the Gaza Strip, and rebuilding its trained forces in the Gaza Strip in order to carry out attacks.

For these reasons, Katz’s policy is that Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor under any circumstances.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)