The Israel Defence Forces announced on Wednesday that they had taken control of the strategic Philadelphia Corridor, which runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt.

It is a target that Israel has said was necessary in its attempt to destroy Hamas as part of the ongoing war, now in its eighth month.

Seizing the area gives Israel control of a strip of land that it says is riddled with tunnels used to funnel weapons and other goods to Hamas – even under a years-long blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt.

The move comes as Israel has deepened its incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge from fighting elsewhere have been displaced and where the intensification of violence in recent days has killed dozens of Palestinians.

Taking over the corridor could complicate Israel’s relations with Egypt, which has previously protested Israel’s advance on its border, including when Israel seized the Rafah border crossing, the only crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Egypt has said that any troop increase in the strategic corridor would violate the countries’ 1979 peace accord.

Speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations, an Israeli military official said that Israel notified Egypt of the takeover. 

Also, he stated that about 20 tunnels, including some previously unknown to Israel, were found during the operation alongside 82 access points to those tunnels.

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