Photo posted with claim about 50 tunnels between Rafah and Egypt is from northern Gaza
Image that does not relate to Gaza-Egypt tunnels
CLAIM
A post on X speculates that Egypt has been helping Hamas in its war with Israel due to the purported existence of tunnels that cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, allegedly facilitating weapons supply to the Palestinian militant group.
BACKGROUND
The IDF has frequently published videos and statements relating to what it describes as Hamas tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip that the group uses for operational work, as weapons storage, and even accommodation for its senior personnel and hostages that were taken from Israel on October 7.
A post on X by the Australian Jewish Association asked on May 19: “HAS EGYPT BEEN HELPING HAMAS?”
The post includes an article from the Daily Wire, a conservative news outlet co-founded by Ben Shapiro. The post and article cited Israeli Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam as telling the International Court of Justice that the IDF had discovered 700 tunnel shafts in Rafah, including 50 that crossed into Egypt.
The article used a photo from inside a tunnel, with no caption except a courtesy to the photographer and Getty Images.
The post from the Australian Jewish Association went on to say that it was “inconceivable that the Egyptian authorities were unaware and this infrastructure would facilitate weapons supply to Hamas.”
The post also includes an image showing soldiers inside a tunnel — the same photo used by the Daily Wire for its article.
METHOD
Since multiple claims are made in this post, our first step was to determine the veracity of the citation from the International Court of Justice hearing.
A reverse image search led us to the hearing on May 17, in which Gilad Noam spoke wearing the same clothing and filmed from the same angle.
Upon watching the full hearing, we were able to confirm that the Deputy Attorney General did make the comments: “Also present in Rafah is an intricate underground tunnel infrastructure that runs underneath the city, that provides ample Nearly 700 tunnel shafts have been identified in Rafah, from which approximately 50 tunnels cross into Egypt. These tunnels are used by Hamas to supply itself with weapons and ammunition. It could potentially be used to smuggle out of Gaza hostages or Hamas senior operatives.”
The original poster used this statement to allude to collusion between Egypt and Hamas. When Hamas rose to power in 2007, both Egypt and Israel closed their borders with the Palestinian enclave, with Egypt enforcing several different levels of border security since then. That begun the blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is still ongoing to this day.
Hundreds of smuggling tunnels have existed for years between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, as was reported in 2011 by BBC News, so it is possible that some still remain.
However, despite Egypt’s support for Palestinian independence since the 1980s, there is little evidence of Egyptian state support for Hamas. The Egyptian authorities have provided a significant amount of aid to Palestinian civilians with air drops and through their shared border, but the country also has also maintained good relations with Israel since both states signed a peace accord in the late 1970s.
Seen as a trusted mediator to both countries, Egypt has furthermore been involved in efforts to end the war, working in peace talks that would, if fulfilled, lead to the release of the rest of the hostages and a cessation in the fighting.
We were also able to find the image used in the post and accompanying article, which does not relate to a tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. According to its caption on Getty Images, it is dated January 7, 2024, and is described as showing Israeli forces securing a tunnel allegedly used by Hamas on October 7 to attack Israel through the Erez crossing in northern Gaza.
From this analysis, we can conclude that the Daily Wire and the Australian Jewish Association used a miscaptioned image from northern Gaza to illustrate a story about the enclave’s southern border with Egypt.
RATING
The post accurately reports a statement made by Israel at the ICJ but uses an image that does not relate to Gaza-Egypt tunnels and makes unsubstantiated claims about Egypt helping Hamas in the conflict.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: HAS EGYPT BEEN HELPING HAMAS? [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].
Saavedra, R. (2024). IDF Discovers 700 Tunnel Shafts In Rafah, Including 50 That Cross Into Egypt. [online] Dailywire.com. [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].
Associated Press (2024). ICJ LIVE: Top UN court holds hearing on Israel’s incursion into Rafah in Gaza. YouTube. [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].
BBC News (2011). Egypt eases blockade at Gaza’s Rafah border. [online] bbc.com. [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].
Noam Galai/Getty Images (2024). Israeli soldiers secure a tunnel that Hamas reportedly used on… [online] Getty Images. [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].