The Israeli army informed on December 17 about uncovering an unusually large concrete and iron-girded Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip located just a few hundred metres from a key border crossing. As per news agency AFP, the size of the tunnel was such that small vehicles could easily travel inside it.
In a statement released by the Israeli Army, it said 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’re 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 the 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 December 17 further remarked that 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, have lost their lives in the war, as per the Hamas-run health ministry, whereas Hamas’ assault in Israel claimed the lives of around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
NE Watch Desk
