Sounds familiar? Just like Al-Shifa hospital. The Hamas command structure was never found, the hospital however, completely demolished.
Israel using tunnel claims to ‘justify’ Rafah offensive
Israel is using claims of tunnels under Egypt’s border with Gaza as cover for its Rafah offensive, the state-linked Al-Qahera News reports, citing a “high-level Egyptian source”.
“There is no truth to Israeli media reports of the existence of tunnels on the Egyptian border with Gaza,” the source told Al-Qahera, which is linked to state intelligence.
“Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes.”
Al-Qahera News reported there are “no communications with the Israeli side” on the allegations of finding tunnels on the borders. Egypt has repeatedly expressed concerns the Israeli offensive could push Palestinians across the border – a scenario Egypt says is completely unacceptable.
They have been there in the past, but it's old news. Egypt took care of them and now there is a huge buffer zone
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/11/1218489546/tunnels-once-connected-egypt-and-gaza-heres-what-they-looked-like-10-years-ago
https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/10/22/floods-and-bombs-this-is-how-egypt-handled-hamas-smuggling-tunnels/
Just about a decade ago, Egypt faced a similar challenge to what Israel is going through now.
ISIS terrorists, who had infiltrated from Gaza, carried out deadly terror attacks in Sinai. They used the smuggling tunnels leading from the strip to Egypt, the economic anchor of Hamas. Estimates say that between 10-15% of the terror organization's budget came from taxes on goods that pass through the tunnels in Rafah as well as from issuing licenses, for an annual income of about one billion dollars.
As such, el-Sissi dealt a great blow to Hamas. Since his rise to power, approximately 1,900 tunnels have been destroyed.
Egypt did not hold back: the tunnels were shelled from the air, destroyed with controlled explosions on the ground, and flooded with sewage water or water pumped directly from the Mediterranean Sea. Some reports said even chemical substances were used, which, if true, turned the tunnels into death traps.
Some might have been restored, yet Egypt is as much focused on getting rid of the tunnels without the IDF's interference. Yet that won't stop the IDF from digging up some of the old tunnel entrances (that don't go anywhere anymore) to use as excuse for the Rafah invasion.
