Egypt-Gaza Tunnels Pose Threat to Israel’s War Aims

Though Egypt has claimed to have destroyed all cross-border tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, the sizable number of remaining cross-border tunnels—estimated by Israeli officials to be at least 12—continue to pose a security threat to Israelis and Palestinians alike, threatening the rise of a resurgent Hamas by enabling Hamas to smuggle further arms in and allowing Hamas leaders to escape from the Gaza Strip and continue to plot attacks from abroad.

The United States must use all policy levers available to ensure that it, Israel, and Egypt are jointly able to secure the ground above and below the Gaza-Egypt border and the abutting buffer zone, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, to ensure that Israel can achieve its wartime objectives in Gaza.