Security personnel have released for publication the fact that a new terrorist tunnel was discovered leading from Gaza well into Israeli territory.
The tunnel, dug after the completion of 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, was identified about a week ago in the area around the southern Israeli Jewish community of Holit.
“The IDF has uncovered and neutralized a Hamas terror tunnel in southern Israel,” the IDF Spokesperson said in a statement Monday morning.
The tunnel extended approximately 150 meters into Israel, emerging between Kerem Shalom and the site from which IDF soldier Gilad Shalim was abducted by Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group in June 2006, sources said.
“This tunnel, the first to be found since Operation Protective Edge, was built by Hamas in order to infiltrate Israel and execute terror attacks against the people of the southern communities,” IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner noted in a sharply worded statement Monday morning. “The IDF will continue its counter terror efforts to uncover and neutralize Hamas’ offensive tunnels.
The tunnel was discovered late last week by IDF soldiers and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) intelligence agents along with engineers who were using specialized technological equipmentk. The forces “uncovered and neutralized an offensive tunnel infiltrating Israel from the Gaza Strip,” Lerner said.
“The ugly truth is that Hamas continues to invest millions of dollars to build tunnels of terror and death,” the spokesman continued.
“The tunnel uncovered in Israel demonstrates once more Hamas’ warped priorities and continued commitment and investment in tools of violence. This tunnel exposes Hamas’ abhorrent intentions to attack the men, women and children of southern Israel.”
Residents of the Jewish communities in the Gaza Belt area have been deeply worried for months, pressuring defense officials to search the area around their homes and communities due to the digging noises they kept hearing under their floors.
