Hagari: Philadelphi Corridor on Gaza-Egypt border was Hamas’s ‘oxygen pipeline’ for weapon smuggling

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in a press conference says the now-captured Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border served as “Hamas’s oxygen pipeline” for smuggling weapons.

“In recent days, IDF troops established operational control on the Philadelphi Corridor, on the border between Egypt and Gaza. The Philadelphi Corridor was used by Hamas as an oxygen pipeline, through which Hamas would frequently smuggle weapons into the Strip,” he says.

“Our troops located along the axis dozens of primed launchers for rocket attacks, launching pits used by Hamas to fire rockets and mortars at Israel,” Hagari says.

He says Hamas “took advantage of the Philadelphi area, took advantage of it and built its infrastructure just dozens of meters from the border with Egypt, so that we won’t strike there.”

The rocket launchers were located between 10 and 40 meters from the Egyptian border, “in a way that Israel won’t strike there on the fence with Egypt,” Hagari says.

Some 70 rockets and mortars were fired from the Rafah area in recent weeks, he says.