From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Troops uncovered 23 tunnels, killed 183 Hamas operatives, IDF says
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleIsrael has uncovered 23 cross-border tunnels so far in its ground operations in the Gaza Strip, with 66 different access shafts to those tunnels, the military says.
Tunnel entrances have been found in houses and mosques, according to the army.
“They’re all interconnected, like a huge network of nerves and arteries,” says spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.
The IDF believes there are dozens more tunnels near the border, in various stages of readiness, which are intended for attacks against Israel.
The army says 183 Hamas gunmen have been killed by IDF troops operating on the ground in Gaza, and 470 injured. Twenty-eight operatives have been captured by troops and interrogated.
The military says a lot of the fighting on the ground has been focused around tunnel entrances, as Palestinian gunmen know the IDF is searching for the tunnels and concentrate their forces and ambush attempts in those areas.
In the past 24 hours the military says it struck 100 terror targets in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, including two mosques that served as Hamas compounds and weapons storage sites. Other targets included “rocket launching facilities” and command centers.
All told, 2,050 rockets have been fired at Israel since Operation Protective Edge began. One thousand six hundred have hit the ground, mostly in open areas. The Iron Dome defense system has fired at 450, with a 90 percent success rate, the army says.
–Mitch Ginsburg and Itamar Sharon
The Times of Israel Community.