Last update - 00:00 25/10/2006
IDF completes 6-day operation destroying Gaza tunnels
By Amos Harel and Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondents
The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday completed a six-day operation along the Philadelphi Route in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip aimed at locating and destroying tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle materiel into Gaza.
Military officials said that additional operations are expected in the near future. Defense Minister Amir Peretz reiterated Tuesday that Israel has no intention of reoccupying the Gaza Strip.
During the six-day operation, 15 tunnels and tunnel openings were discovered along a 1.5-kilometer stretch. The IDF destroyed the tunnels using explosives.
Sources in the IDF Southern Command said there could be as many as 100 tunnels along the Philadelphi Route.
Two armed Palestinians were killed in the course of the operation, in which soldiers from the Givati Brigade, the Bedouin patrol and the Engineering Corps participated. No IDF forces were injured. The IDF left the southern Strip early Tuesday morning, but forces from the Givati Brigade remained in northern Gaza to search for Qassam rocket launchers.
Peretz toured the Gaza Strip border area on Tuesday and spoke with commanders of the Kerem Shalom base. Peretz said the IDF is carrying out pinpointed operations aimed at reducing Qassam fire and arms smuggling. He said that no broad campaigns are planned, adding that the restraint is "only in order to satisfy public opinion." Nevertheless, he promised to do "everything possible to insure that Gaza does not turn into southern Lebanon."
After midnight on Monday, the Israel Air Force targeted two Qassam launchers in the Beit Hanun area, from where rockets had been fired against Sderot. Tuesday night, IDF destroyed another rocket launcher in the area.
In operations in the West Bank on Tuesday, nine wanted Palestinians were arrested.
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that advanced anti-tank missiles were among the weapons smuggled into Gaza via the tunnels.
"In the Rafah region, the terrorist organizations have succeeded in digging hundreds of tunnels to bring arms and ammunition from Sinai to the Gaza Strip," Halutz said Tuesday.
Unless the smuggling of arms and weapons via Rafah is stopped, Israel will soon have to decide about its presence along the Philadelphi Route, he added.
In response to a question from MK Ami Ayalon (Labor), Halutz said the Egyptians were taking more action against the smuggling of arms and ammunition than in the past but that Israel still expected them to take more widespread steps and to prevent the transfer of arms.
Turning to Lebanon, Halutz said that there were no Israeli soldiers on Lebanese soil now, other than in the vicinity of Ghajar. He said he expects an arrangement to be worked out in the next few days between the IDF, UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army about traffic in the vicinity.
The Lebanese Army has about 8,000 soldiers in South Lebanon at the moment, and UNIFIL has some 7,000 Halutz said. He added that 50 teams are currently engaged in the debriefing process for the recent war.