The Israeli military has stepped up its efforts to locate terror tunnels inside the Gaza Strip in the last week, Walla reported Thursday.
Despite claims to the contrary by Hamas, Israeli authorities said they never agreed to stop using bulldozers or other heavy equipment on the Gazan side of the border fence as long as the threat of tunneling persisted. The IDF is also turning up the soil near the perimeter fence, preventing the growth of vegetation that could obstruct its views of Hamas activities and the placement of IEDs.
Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk claimed last month that the IDF had pulled its troops out of Gazan territory as part of an Egyptian-mediated deal.
Tensions flared earlier in May after Israel announced the discovery of two Hamas terror tunnels that extended into its territory. Hamas responded to the IDF’s efforts to uncover and destroy the tunnels near the border fence by firing mortar rounds. Israel announced that it had intercepted a Gaza-bound shipment of material that could be used for building rockets and tunnels shortly afterwards.
The New York Times reported last month that Gazans living near the border with Israel are increasingly fearful that Hamas is building tunnels underneath their homes and using them as human shields. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, formerly the head of the research division of Israeli military intelligence and later the director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told reporters weeks earlier that the discovery of the tunnels was a sign that Hamas was preparing for another war against Israel. He added that the tunnel digging means that “they definitely invest a lot in making the necessary preparations so that in the next round, when they decide to start it, they will be able to inflict the heaviest damage on Israel, including through those tunnels.”
Hamas reportedly spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each month and employs more than 1,000 operatives “working 24 hours a day, six days a week” building tunnels.
In the video embedded below, IDF troops are seen destroying one of the recently discovered terror tunnels that extended into Israel.
[Photo: Israel Defense Forces / YouTube ]