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Israel destroys ‘unique’ Hamas tunnel extending into Israel via Egypt
The IDF said the U-shaped attack tunnel destroyed near Rafah and the Kerem Shalom border crossing was still under construction and not yet usable. The military said the tunnel crossed from Gazoo into Egypt and from there into southern Israel, and was intended both for smuggling weapons and for attacks against Israel. Its full length was around 2 kilometers (1.2 miles), the army said, and the segment inside Israeli territory was 900 meters (half a mile) long. The military discovered the tunnel in the past two weeks, an army spokesperson said. The army called the tunnel’s design "unique." "This is a very long tunnel," a source told the Ynet news site. "It also had exit shafts on the Egyptian side. The tunnel was dealt with using  s [in Gazoo], and in the coming hours will also be taken care of on our side to neutralize it entirely."Israeli officials reportedly informed Egyptian counterparts of the planned strike on the tunnel, according to Hebrew-language media. It was not clear if Israeli strikes on the tunnel included action over the border in Egypt. The destruction of the tunnels came as Israeli planes pounded Gazoo in response to a morning barrage of mortar fire, including one shell that landed in a kindergarten playground shortly before children were due to arrive. The IDF said it struck over 35 terror targets in Gazoo throughout the day, belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... . These included weapons caches, naval targets and terror headquarters, the IDF said. Defense officials reportedly said the next 24 hours would be "intense" amid the worst escalation on the Gazoo border since the 2014 war, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-05-30 |
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