The IDF announced Wednesday that Israeli forces have destroyed a Hamas attack tunnel in Gaza that was used by terrorists in an attempt to infiltrate into Israel last month.
This past June, four Hamas terrorists tried to infiltrate Israeli territory through the tunnel route that was destroyed.
The attempt was thwarted by the soldiers of the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion, who conducted close-quarters combat and exchanged fire with the terrorists.
During the combat, a soldier of the Southern Gaza Brigade, Sergeant Major Zeed Mazarib z”l, fell in action.
Since the beginning of the war, the IDF has been working to dismantle and neutralize the underground network of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
The Combat Engineering Unit of the 143rd Division, the Yahalom Unit and the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion of the Southern Gaza Brigade dismantled the offensive underground tunnel network.
The route was approximately 700 meters (nearly half a mile) long, located together with other subterranean passages in the Rafah area.
Inside the tunnel that was destroyed, the troops located further offshoots, blast doors, a terrorist hideout and electrical infrastructure.
The IDF has been searching Rafah and the adjacent Philadelphi Corridor to identify and dismantle as many tunnels as possible.
Israeli combat engineers are expanding the Philadelphi Corridor and demolishing any structure built within approximately 800 meters of the Gaza-Egypt border while sweeping the entire area along with that in nearby Rafah.
Thus far, more than 20 tunnels have been located, including several with complex systems that include multi-level passages, and some that penetrate deep into Rafah, the Gazan city that straddles the border with Egypt.
Some of the tunnels are wide enough to be used as a highway for smugglers’ trucks, bringing in everything from luxury goods, high-end vehicles and advanced arms and military consultants from Iran.
The IDF has repeatedly said it will take many months to complete the search for cross-border smuggling tunnels built by Hamas along the Gaza-Egypt border and near the Rafah Crossing.
