Israeli army uncovers ‘biggest Hamas tunnel’ with 4-km long network near Gaza border

The Israeli army on Sunday (Dec 17) said that it had uncovered an unusually large concrete and iron-girded Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip, just a few hundred metres from a key border crossing.

As per news agency AFP reports, the size of the tunnel was such that small vehicles could easily travel inside it.

The Israeli army released a statement saying that the tunnel cost millions of dollars and took years to construct. The project they said was helmed by Mohamed Yahya, brother of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who reportedly was the mastermind of the Oct 7 assault against Hamas.

“We’re going to enter the biggest tunnel we found in Gaza. The biggest secret of Sinwar. His project. His subterranean tunnel project. We gonna enter. It was a secret, that we have revealed that was meant to target the (Erez) crossing,” Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

“Tunnel, the subterranean tunnel, constructed by Mohammed Sinwar. This is the Sinwar project tunnel that was meant to do a terror attack,” he said.

Hagari put the full length of the tunnel at 4 km (2.5 miles), which was enough to reach into northern Gaza City, once the heart of Hamas governance and now a devastated combat zone.

It was “the biggest tunnel we found in Gaza … meant to target the (Erez) crossing,” Hagari said, without specifying whether it was used by Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack.

“For this tunnel that ends 400 metres from the Erez crossing. Erez crossing, symbolised hope for Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians were going to work from this crossing inside Israel,” he said.

“Millions of dollars were invested in this tunnel. It took years to build this tunnel … Vehicles could drive through,” he added.

 

This tunnel, shown by Hagari, had poles descending vertically downward that, which he claimed, indicated part of a wider network.

The Israeli forces on Sunday said they had found tunnels under vacation homes in Gaza which were used by senior Hamas leaders along with another shaft located under a baby’s crib in the northern Strip, amid the ongoing offensive in the besieged Palestinian enclave, as per the Times of Israel reports.

The military said that they raided the offices of the commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis battalion and the vacation homes of several senior Hamas commanders, including the Palestinian terror group’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

In Gaza, more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children lost their lives in the war whereas Hamas’ assault in Israel claimed the lives of around  1,139 people, mostly civilians, according to the updated Israeli figures.

(With inputs from agencies)

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