An IDF Southern Command official tells Hadashot television news that Hamas will soon understand “its tunnels project doesn’t pay.”
Advances in tunnel-detection are causing the strategic reassessment, the Israeli official says.
The subterranean wall Israel is building will deny Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Gaza-based terrorist groups what is arguably the only strategic weapon they currently possess, a fact that he said is slowly dawning on them.
“It’s just a matter of them becoming aware of it,” the official says.
The group lost 23 operatives in Israeli detonations of tunnels found passing into Israeli territory in the past two months, “but hasn’t responded with rockets. [That shows] our deterrence is strong,” the official says.
A destroyed Palestinian Islamic Jihad tunnel, leading from Gaza into Israel, near the southern Israeli kibbutz of Kissufim. (Jack Guez/AFP/POOL)
— Judah Ari Gross and TOI Staff
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, January 18, 2018
