Jerusalem: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Thursday claimed that it has destroyed entrances of 130 Hamas tunnels in Gaza since the militant group waged its war against the Jewish nation October 7.
In a post on X, the military said: “IDF combat engineers are currently working to expose and destroy Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including tunnels. Water and oxygen storage discovered inside the tunnels indicates Hamas’ preparations for prolonged stays underground.
“130 tunnel entrances have been destroyed since the beginning of the war.”
In an earlier statement late Wednesday, the IDF said that it destroyed a Hamas tunnel near a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) sponsored school in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza.
It also shared a video allegedly showing the destruction “near the school” through a drone camera.
“With the expansion of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, the soldiers are thwarting Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF added.
The myriad of tunnels under Gaza are best known as passageways used to smuggle goods from Egypt and launch attacks into Israel.
However, according to the IDF, a second underground network also exists which the Israeli military colloquially refers to as the ‘Gaza metro’.
It is a vast labyrinth of tunnels, by some accounts several kilometres underground, used to transport people and goods; store rockets and ammunition caches; and house Hamas command and control centers, all away from the prying eyes of the IDF’s aircraft and surveillance drones, CNN reported.
In 2021, Hamas had claimed to have built 500 km worth of tunnels under Gaza, though it is unclear if that figure was accurate or posturing.
If true, Hamas’ underground tunnels would be a little less than half the length of the New York City subway system.
Meanwhile, the pace of Palestinian civilians fleeing the combat zone in northern Gaza has picked up as Israel’s air and ground campaign there intensifies. The pace appeared to be greater Wednesday, after the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said about 15,000 people fled Tuesday, compared to 5,000 Monday and 2,000 Sunday.
The densely populated northern area of Gaza, specifically Gaza City and adjacent crowded urban refugee camps are the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas, the militant group that has ruled Gaza for 16 years. The war, now in its second month, was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
The number of Palestinians killed in the war passed 10,500, including more than 4,300 children, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said.
In the occupied West Bank, more than 160 Palestinians have been killed in the violence and Israeli raids. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the October 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 239 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
Agencies
