‘Ready for use’ Hamas tunnel destroyed by IDF

The Israeli army destroyed a Hamas tunnel which infiltrated into Israeli territory overnight Sunday, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis stated.

Calling it a “significant tunnel,” Manelis stated that Hamas began building it following the end of Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and that “the tunnel was ready for use.”

It was the fifth cross-border tunnel to be found and destroyed by the Israeli army in recent months and the first to be found in the northern area of the Hamas-run enclave. Several other underground targets have also been destroyed inside in the Strip.

In February, the army destroyed one tunnel near Gaza’s destroyed airport located east of Rafah in the southern part of the Strip close to the Israeli border and another one in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City which was dug toward Israeli territory.

The work by the military to locate and neutralize terror tunnels has “intensified” in the past six months as the army continues to build it’s underground barrier with the Gaza Strip by the end of the year.

The tunnel’s route was identified and monitored by security forces until its destruction, and was neutralized inside Israeli territory by an engineering operation led by the Southern Command, the Gaza division and the Intelligence Branch and Air Force.

The tunnel stretched several kilometers inside Gaza and was connected to a network of other tunnels. It stretched meters inside Israel close to the community of Kfar Aza but “did not at any point pose any threat to Israeli citizens or communities,” Manelis stressed.

While the security establishment does not believe that Hamas currently seeks another conflict, the situation is fragile, especially given the worsening conditions in the Strip. Gazans have been demonstrating on the border fence with Israel each Friday in recent months and the Israeli military believes that Hamas uses these weekly demonstrations as a cover to carry out terror attacks.

According to Manelis, the tunnel began outside Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip mere meters from where thousands of Palestinians have been demonstrating along the Gaza-Israel border fence.

“Hamas has been working in recent months, and more intensively in recent weeks, to turn the border fence into a zone of terror and fighting,” Manelis stated, adding that “the violent demonstrations are a cover for terrorist attempts both above and below ground.

The IDF will not allow harm to the security of the citizens of Israel or any violations of its sovereignty, and will continue to act resolutely against terrorism of any kind.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman wrote on Sunday morning on Twitter that Israel is “opening the week with another impressive intelligence and operational achievement,” adding that “citizens of Gaza, Hamas burns your money on tunnels.”

פותחים שבוע בהישג מודיעיני ומבצעי מרשים, עם השמדתה של מנהרת טרור נוספת, הארוכה והעמוקה ביותר שנחשפה עד כה. מנהרה שבחפירתה הושקעו מיליוני דולרים, כסף שבמקום להקל על מצוקת התושבים, טבע בחול. תושבי עזה, חמאס שורף את הכסף שלכם על מנהרות לשום מקום. על כולן נשים את היד.

— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) April 15, 2018

Yisrael Katz, who serves as both Transportation and Intelligence Minister, tweeted his thanks to the IDF, writing “Congratulations to the IDF on the exposure and destruction of another Hamas terror tunnel. The tunnel that has been exposed and blown up shows clearly: The era of the tunnel threat is about to end.”

Congratulations to the IDF on the exposure & destruction of another Hamas terror tunnel.
The tunnel that has been exposed and blown up shows clearly: The era of the tunnel threat is about to end.

— ישראל כץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) April 15, 2018