Israeli police say a 25-metre tunnel in Qalqilya; the army says there was no tunnel, only two 12-metre shafts

Two official accounts. Ynet reports that the police announced a tunnel 25 metres deep in Qalqilya. The army then said, in Ynet's report, that "the presence of a tunnel route was ruled out" and criticised "official and irresponsible announcements". Ynet itself calls that criticism unusual.

The police do not back down. Ynet quotes them: "every word in the announcement we issued is correct and based on facts."

One headline takes the police version. The Jerusalem Post headline reads "Police find deep excavation tunnel and arms in West Bank". The only sentence in its body quotes the army ruling a tunnel out.

Four arrests. Ynet says four suspects were held. It names none of them, gives no charge and does not say who arrested them.

What is not settled - Whether any tunnel exists. The two bodies say opposite things, and neither has shown evidence in the reports we hold. - The depth. Only Ynet gives figures, and each comes from one party. - Who the four are, and what they are accused of. - What Palestinians in Qalqilya say. Neither report quotes anyone there, and we hold no Palestinian outlet on this.

This story is about a dig in the Palestinian city of Qalqilya, and two Israeli state bodies that disagree about what it was.

How it got here. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the war of 1967. Under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, the Palestinian Authority was given civil and security powers in the main Palestinian cities, Qalqilya among them. The Israeli army still holds overall military control of the West Bank and enters those cities on raids. During the second intifada, from 2002, Israel began building a separation barrier along and inside the West Bank. At Qalqilya the barrier runs close around the city. The city sits on the line with the Israeli coastal plain that Israelis call the Sharon, which is the place name in the Ynet headline.

Tunnels carry weight in Israel. Hamas's tunnels in Gaza have been a central target of the war there since the attacks of 7 October 2023. A tunnel under the barrier in the West Bank would mean a route into Israel itself. The Jerusalem Post's photograph shows another find, near the village of Al-Jib on 9 September, where its caption says Palestinians "allegedly" tried to dig beneath the barrier.

The actors. The Israeli police, including the Border Police, operate in the West Bank alongside the army. The army is the authority in charge there. When the two issue opposite accounts of one find, a reader has no single official version to rely on.

What is at stake. If there was a tunnel, it is the kind of find that shapes security policy along the barrier. If there were only shafts, the police announcement overstated it, as the army says. Either way, four people are held, and the reports we hold say nothing about them.

Where it stands. Both bodies stand by their statements. The reports we hold carry no independent account of the site.