Egypt denied Israeli statements about the existence of tunnels along its border with Gaza, calling Israeli media reports untrue, according to state-affiliated Al-Qahera TV on Wednesday.
“These lies propagated by Tel Aviv indicate the size of the crisis facing the Israeli government,” the channel said, quoting an unnamed senior official.
“The continuous Israeli attempts to spread lies about the status of its troops in the field in Palestinian Rafah intends to obscure its military failure and its political crisis,” the source added as per the channel.
A different senior source told the channel earlier in the day that there is no communication “with the Israeli side about the claims of the existence of tunnels along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.”
Deployment of Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor — a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border — without prior agreement between both countries would be a breach of the peace treaty, an Egyptian official told CNN in February, adding that the government had not approved such a deployment.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had established “operational control” over the corridor, where it was carrying out an operation at the corridor and that 20 tunnels it had found there were now being “neutralized.”
Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli official said the 20 tunnels crossed into Egypt, some of which are new, and that the information has been passed on to Egypt.
CNN is unable to independently verify the Israeli claims of control.
