Israeli military forces operating in southern Gaza have destroyed three more terror tunnels belonging to the Khan Younis Brigade of Hamas.
Since the beginning of the “Swords of Iron” war, the IDF has been operating against the underground infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
In recent months, IDF soldiers led by the 98th Division and the Yahalom Unit have been operating to locate, map and destroy the tunnels of the Hamas Khan Younis Brigade.
During their operations, the forces located the three offensive terror tunnels, each of which had been under intelligence and technological surveillance by the IDF in recent years.
The tunnels were mapped and destroyed following preliminary ground activity.
The operation was carried out by the Southern Command’s Engineering Array, the Gaza Division, the 98th Division and the Yahalom Unit.
One of the tunnels was uncovered about a decade ago, and was attacked in an air strike during the 2021 “Guardian of the Walls” operation. Several Hamas terrorists were eliminated during that attack.
At the beginning of the current war it was again struck at several points to prevent offensive activity, and over the last few weeks it was destroyed by engineering forces.
Another tunnel — a terror tunnel crossing into Israeli territory — was uncovered and destroyed in 2014.
The Hamas terrorist organization did not restore the tunnel since then, and in recent weeks another section of the tunnel deep inside the Gaza Strip was destroyed.
The third tunnel destroyed in the last few weeks was uncovered in 2019, before the construction of the underground barrier. One branch of the tunnel crossed a few hundred meters into Israeli territory at the time.
It has since been under full operational and intelligence control by the IDF.
In this branch of the tunnel, IDF soldiers placed traps and sensors for the IDF to use if needed, as part of the IDF’s activity against the Hamas terrorist organization’s underground network of tunnels.
Since the beginning of the war, the tunnel has been struck numerous times, along with several other actions that neutralized the branch of the tunnel that crossed into Israeli territory.
The tunnel was not used by the terrorists during the brutal massacre of October 7th and has been controlled with surveillance and fire throughout the war.
“The IDF will continue to work to destroy all the tunnels in the Gaza Strip and destroy the capabilities of all the terrorist organizations, with Hamas at their head, to harm the civilians of the State of Israel,” the IDF said.
