Army engineers said to begin operation to destroy Hamas tunnels in areas under IDF control

Army engineers are beginning a wide-scale operation to destroy Hamas tunnels in areas of the Gaza Strip that have come under Israeli control since the start of the ground offensive, the Walla news site reports.

The combat engineers are using various types of robots and explosive devices to destroy the tunnels, detonate any booby traps installed by Hamas, and kill terrorists, the report says.

“Maybe at first they were able to harass us, sting us by firing from tunnel exits, but after we established control of the areas, the engineering operation started,” a senior officer in the Southern Command tells Walla.

“We are going to collapse the entrances and the tunnels on them. It will become a death zone. They made a mistake, they chose to be in a place they cannot escape from. They will die in the tunnels,” he said.

The report says the troops have already destroyed some 100 tunnels not counting the ones hit in airstrikes.