IDF destroys Gaza tunnel that led into Israel
Explosions reported by residents of communities bordering Strip, later confirmed by Israel
A day after the IDF announced the discovery of an “attack tunnel” inside Israeli territory emanating from the Gaza Strip, the tunnel was destroyed, according to Palestinian reports cited by Israeli media late Tuesday.
Israeli officials confirmed on Wednesday that the tunnel had indeed been blown up.
Explosions could be heard by residents of Gaza border communities on Tuesday, Army Radio reported.
The IDF said Monday that the concrete-lined tunnel — some two kilometers long — was found last week adjacent to the southern Gaza Strip. The discovery was kept under wraps by the military censor until Monday.
The tunnel’s exact location is still being kept under wraps by the military censor, though it does not appear that the tunnel led directly into Holit or Sufa, the Israeli communities closest to the southern Gaza Strip.
The IDF has identified the Hamas terror organization as the group behind the tunnel’s construction and maintains it was dug “in order to carry out attacks against civilians,” a spokesperson said, though he would not discuss the specific intelligence that led to that finding.
It is the first such tunnel discovered inside Israeli territory since the end of the war in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014. During that operation, dubbed in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, at least 34 tunnels were discovered and destroyed by Israeli forces, many of them leading into Israeli territory.
The find last week was made by a private Israeli firm which may have found a second cross-border passageway later Monday.
The company, hired to search for tunnels by residents of Gaza-border communities, has detected a hollow underground shaft that it says may have been dug by Hamas in order to carry out terror attacks in Israel, a report on Channel 2 news.
The firm, not named in the report, is said to have been carrying out scans of land around a number of communities where residents have complained of hearing digging noises beneath their feet.
Following the 2014 operation, Hamas vowed to continue using tunnels and rockets to attack the Jewish state. Speaking at a rally in the Gaza Strip last week, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh again told residents: “Our message to the prisoners is a message inked in blood. The rifle and the tunnel are our commitment.”
Following the 50-day conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip in summer 2014, Israel invested an estimated NIS 1 billion (approximately $250 million) toward developing a detection system to locate such tunnels.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel’s tunnel detection system was the first of its kind in the world, calling the discovery a “world breakthrough.”
The army reportedly used such a system to discover the tunnel, though IDF officials stressed that technology was not the only aspect of the discovery operation, which also included extensive intelligence gathering and “boots on the ground.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
