Israel is planning to place underground surveillance equipment to detect tunnels on the Philadelphi Corridor, Israel Hayom reported. The surveillance equipment is a unique Israeli technology, a version of which is also installed in the underground barrier that Israel built around the Gaza Strip in recent years.
Senior security officials told Israel Hayom, that "it is sufficient to place this equipment on ground in order to detect the digging of new tunnels, and there is no need to dig many kilometers and install an underground wall, similar to the one previously placed on the Israel-Gaza border."
This new plan is despite what was previously reported, that the Prime Minister “insists that Israel remain in the Philadelphi Corridor.”
At this point, the security establishment has abandoned a plan to build an underground wall between Israel and Egypt, a significantly expensive move that would take a long time.
It was also reported that the US would finance the placing of the surveillance equipment, and has already allocated $50 million out of a $500 million budget for this purpose, which can be used immediately for this project.
According to the plan, although Israel will not be the one to place or finance the surveillance equipment, it will receive the data, so that it can monitor the digging of new tunnels from Gaza's Rafah to Egyptian territory.
At the same time, the IDF is currently continuing to work in the Philadelphi Corridor area to locate and discover smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt and has, so far, found several tunnels, with only one of them showing evidence that it was used for smuggling.