IDF says it blew up Hamas tunnel in Khan Younis that entered Israeli territory by several hundred meters

The IDF says it located and destroyed three major Hamas attack tunnels in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza — including one that entered Israeli territory — that it says had been under Israeli surveillance in recent years.

One of the tunnels was first uncovered a decade ago, and during the 2021 Gaza war, it was targeted in an airstrike, killing several Hamas operatives, the IDF says.

At the beginning of the ongoing war, the same tunnel was struck at a number of locations, preventing it from being used. It was blown up within the past few weeks, according to the IDF.

The second tunnel was first uncovered in 2014, and at the time it had crossed into Israeli territory and was later destroyed. The IDF says Hamas did not work to fix the tunnel, and in recent weeks, another section of the underground passage, deeper inside Gaza, was blown up.

The third tunnel was first found in 2019, before the underground Gaza border barrier was constructed, according to the IDF. One branch of the tunnel entered Israeli territory by several hundred meters, and it remained under surveillance and control since, the IDF says.

“Sensors and explosives were placed in [the tunnel] in order to be used by the IDF if needed, as part of a special operation against the underground network of the Hamas terror organization,” the military says.

The IDF says that the tunnel was struck numerous times amid the war, alongside other operations to render the section that entered Israeli territory inoperable.

The rest of the tunnel was blown up in recent weeks.

According to the IDF, the tunnel was not used by Hamas during the October 7 onslaught and remained under heavy surveillance amid the war.

The IDF has for years claimed that no tunnels entered Israeli territory since the construction of its underground barrier, completed in 2021.