| More on this report from yesterday. |
The IDF destroyed for the second time on Sunday a terror tunnel initially demolished during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, which Hamas has tried to rebuild.
The tunnel, which runs from Rafah in the southern Gazoo Strip to the Eshkol Regional Council inside Israel, was flooded with materials rendering the whole network unusable.
"Overnight, IDF forces operated against underground infrastructure in the Rafah area," the IDF Spokesman's Office said.
"For several weeks now, we've been identifying Hamas activity, as they have been trying to rebuild underground infrastructure that was active during Protective Edge. We've been following this activity and decided to take this action to thwart it before Hamas could reconnect the tunnel to the old infrastructure and before the tunnel crossed into our territory. It did not pose a threat," the IDF continued.
Another Hamas tunnel was bombed by the Israel Air Force overnight Saturday in the central Gazoo Strip. The IAF also attacked other Hamas targets in retaliation for several IEDs that have been planted along the strip's border.
| Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recommended to Hamas "to invest the money in the welfare of the Gazoo residents, because by the end of the year its tunnel project will be eliminated." |
The Military Police closed off some areas of the Eshkol Regional Council as IDF forces were working to neutralize the tunnel. The Paleostinians reported IDF engineering forces were operating on the southern Gazoo border.
"There's no developing security incident on the Gazoo border and the roadblocks are just part of routine activity," the IDF Spokesman's Office said.
Over the past six months, the IDF has exposed and neutralized three border-crossing terror tunnels in Israeli territory‐two in the Kissufim and Ein HaShlosha area and another under the Kerem Shalom border crossing, which also branched out into Egypt. The tunnels were uncovered thanks to new technology to detect underground activity.
Also over the past six months, the IAF attacked two terror tunnels inside the Gazoo Strip, one of them a month ago in the Zaytun Quarter in response to an explosive that went off on the border near Khan Yunis, leaving four IDF soldiers maimed.
"We've been operating in recent months using an ability that to our understanding will not allow re-using old tunnels dealt with during Protective Edge," the IDF said. "Hamas is trying to use what it has to repurpose old tunnels by trying to reconnect what's left of the tunnel tunnels. Hamas is once again investing its money in the underground project that is going down the drain thanks to our operations. We have a pretty good knowledge of the locations where it is possible to repurpose tunnels."
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recommended to Hamas "to invest the money in the welfare of the Gazoo residents, because by the end of the year its tunnel project will be eliminated."
"Systematically, based on quality intelligence and groundbreaking technology, Israel is destroying Hamas's tunnels one by one. Those who think they can hurt us from below ground will come across an iron wall," Lieberman added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that "Our policy is to take determined action against any attempt to attack us and to systematically eliminate the infrastructure of terrorist tunnels and thus we will continue. The time has come for the international community to realize that the assistance funds to Gazoo are being buried underground."