Israelis near Gaza border report hearing digging noises

At least four families from the village of Pri Gan, located about 4.5 kilometers from the southern Gaza Strip, say they heard sounds of digging near their homes, adding that the floors in their apartments have shaken.

Israel Radio reports that Eshkol Regional Council head Gadi Yarkoni, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim about two kilometers from the Gaza border, has a recording of the sounds of the excavation.

On Tuesday evening, at least six Palestinians were reported killed in a collapse of a tunnel dug under the Hamas-run Strip. According to Israel’s Channel 10 television, the six fatalities were all members of the Hamas terror group, as were the five others injured in the incident.

The nature of the tunnel in question was not immediately clear. Hamas has in the past dug cross-border tunnels into Israel in order to stage attacks on civilians and soldiers. Other tunnels are used by the terror group as part of its defensive infrastructure.

Still from an August 2015 Hamas video purporting to show a tunnel dug under the Israel border (Ynet screenshot)

Hamas has built dozens of tunnels into Israel, many of which were used to carry out attacks during its conflict with Israel in summer 2014. The IDF said it destroyed over 30 tunnels at the time, but officials have expressed concerns that the terror group is seeking to rebuild the infrastructure.