Residents in the southern Israeli city of Sderot say they’re hearing the sounds of hammers and other tools, “apparently from Hamas tunnels being dug,” according to a local source.
The Israel Defense Force responded immediately — Tuesday evening — to the concerns expressed by the residents, said the source.
Military personnel said “the matter will be evaluated and a technological team will be sent to the site.”
Israeli residents living in communities along the Gaza border have for years reported hearing digging noises beneath their homes, and vibrations that caused their homes and floors to tremble.
For a long time, the IDF attempted to verify the complaints but failed and said there were no tunnels below — until such time that the technology advanced to the point that new equipment was indeed able to identify Hamas terrorist attack tunnels reaching into Israeli territory from Gaza.
The Gaza Division of the Israel Defense Force’s special unit is dedicated specifically to the detection, mapping and destruction of terrorist tunnels.
Within that division, a unique technological laboratory was established in 2016 that uses innovative ground research to scan the earth, its orifices and dynamics, to probe its secrets and determine where terrorists are tunneling below.
In the past two years the IDF has improved its ability to detect and destroy Hamas terror tunnels. Its advanced technologies are continuing to improve, military personnel add.