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

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. [...] − In February 2013, an Egyptian court ordered the military to destroy the tunnel network after ruling in favor of a plaintiff who alleged the tunnels threatened “national security.” The plaintiff in the case provided evidence showing the number of active cross-border tunnels to be nearly 2,000. [...] ⚫ However, the sizable number of remaining cross-border tunnels—estimated by Israel to be at least 12—continue to pose a security threat to Israelis and Palestinians alike by threatening the rise of a resurgent Hamas and by allowing Hamas leaders to escape and continue to plot attacks from abroad. [...] » Under the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, Egypt is obligated to “ensure that acts or threats of belligerency, hostility, or violence do not originate from and are not committed from within its territory.” » In September 2005, Israel signed an agreement with Egypt called the Agreed Arrangements Regarding the Deployment of a Designated Force of Border Guards Along the Border in the Rafah Area, als. [...] ⚫ As JINSA called for in its recent report The Day After: A Plan For Gaza, the United States should use its considerable influence “to secure meaningful and consistent Egyptian efforts to lessen threats” in order to prevent the “reconstitution of Hamas or other terrorist forces.” » The United States should use all available policy levers to do more to incentivize greater Egyptian adherence to its.