Israeli use of smart bombs to destroy tunnels ruled out
Cairo: A spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he was not aware of an Israeli newspaper report saying that Israeli air force could start using “smart bombs to bomb tunnels allegedly used to smuggle weapons along the Egypt-Gaza border.
The spokesperson told The Daily Star Egypt “that if this was a report leaked to the Israeli press it might not even be true, and that there might not be a need to comment on something which is as of yet unsubstantiated and could possibly remain so.
On Friday, Reuters quoted the Israeli daily Maariv newspaper as saying Israel may soon use precision-guided weapons to penetrate deep underground in the hope of destroying the tunnel network that Israel says riddles the narrow border area.
The border strip, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, is an 11 km. stretch that is only 100 m wide.
The plan [as it was presented] includes detailed reference to the proximity to the Egyptian border and the surrounding civilian population, Maariv said.
An Israeli army spokesman declined to comment on the report, saying that private discussions of the army chief of staff could not be disclosed.
Another source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there is an agreement between the Egyptian and Israeli governments to ensure that the tunnels are not used to deliver weapons from Egypt to Israel.
Until now, according to the source, who did not wish to be identified, Israel has closed about 20 tunnels. However, he denied the use of smart bombs to destroy the tunnels.
But according to former Egyptian Ambassador to Israel Mohammed Bassiouny, Egypt is not only concerned about arms smuggled to Palestinian factions in Gaza but also back into Sinai, which has seen bombing attacks on tourist hotspots in the past two years.
The tunnels can be used both ways, he said, We don’t want weapons, drugs or people being smuggled into Egypt. [Therefore] we are opposed to the tunnels and we destroy them.
Bassiouny told The Daily Star Egypt that Israel “might be forced to re-engage in the area if it believed Hamas was still effectively using the tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
The Philadelphi Corridor is termed a yellow zone in the Oslo accord and therefore deemed to be under Israeli jurisdiction, said Bassiouny.
He added that when Israel withdrew from Gaza, Egypt asked for control over the area due to its proximity to the border, and Egyptian forces currently monitored it.
Israel says it has been unable to control weapons smuggling into Gaza since it withdrew its forces from the coastal strip last year.
Last week, police seized 195 crates of automatic weapons and ammunition meant to be smuggled across the border. Four men thought to be behind the smuggling operations were arrested in a subsequent security sweep of Sinai.
