Israel finds massive tunnel adjoining to Gaza border, elevating new questions on prewar intelligence
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — The Israeli army stated Sunday it has found a big tunnel shaft in Gaza near what was as soon as a busy crossing into Israel, elevating new questions on how Israeli surveillance missed such conspicuous preparations by Hamas for the militants’ lethal Oct. 7 assault.
The entryway to the tunnel is just some hundred yards from the closely fortified Erez crossing and a close-by Israeli army base.
The army stated it stretches for over 2.5 miles, hyperlinks up with a sprawling tunnel community throughout Gaza and is huge sufficient for automobiles to go by way of. The military stated Sunday that the tunnel facilitated the transit of automobiles, militants, and provides in preparation for the Oct. 7 assault.
That day, militants used a rocket-propelled grenade to interrupt previous the portion of wall near the Erez crossing and stormed the bottom, killing not less than three troopers and kidnapping some again to Gaza, the military stated. It was certainly one of a number of locations alongside the border wall the place militants simply blew previous Israel’s safety defenses, entered Israeli territory and killed some 1,200 folks and took about 240 others hostage.
The unprecedented assault triggered a devastating warfare that has raged for over 10 weeks and claimed over 18,000 lives within the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, in keeping with Palestinian well being officers. Israel says destruction of Hamas’ tunnel community is a significant goal and that a lot of the underground community runs beneath faculties, hospitals and residential areas.
Israel’s army, intelligence and political officers have come beneath heavy criticism for failing to detect the assault forward of time.
Maj. Nir Dinar, a army spokesperson, stated that Israeli safety providers didn’t know in regards to the tunnel earlier than Oct. 7 as a result of Israel’s border defenses solely detected tunnels meant to enter Israel.
“As far as I know, this tunnel doesn’t cross from Gaza into Israel and stops within 400 meters from the border, which means the indicators won’t indicate that a tunnel is being built,” Dinar stated. He added that the doorway, a round cement opening resulting in a cavernous passageway, was positioned beneath a storage, hiding it from Israeli drones and satellite tv for pc photos.
While the army was conscious that Hamas had an intensive tunnel community, Dinar stated they didn’t assume the militants would be capable of perform their plans for a large-scale assault.
“It’s no surprise that this was the Hamas strategy all along,” Dinar stated. “The surprise is that they have succeeded and the size of this tunnel … was really shocking.”
The Erez crossing, a fortress-like facility that processed the motion of Palestinians into Israel for work, medical care and transit to neighboring Jordan, held nice symbolic worth for Hamas. The huge crossing was protected by safety cameras and army patrols and the adjoining army base. The crossing suffered heavy harm on Oct. 7 and has not reopened.
The military stated its particular “Yahalom” unit, which focuses on tunnel warfare, has labored to excavate the tunnel because it was first detected. They say they’ve discovered weapons inside.
“At this point, this is the biggest tunnel in Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief army spokesman, advised reporters in a tour of the tunnel’s entrance on Friday.
It is unclear if the tunnel was used on Oct. 7.
The military additionally confirmed reporters troopers’ barracks on the close by base that it stated have been set ablaze by the militants. They regarded just like the ashes of a furnace, with blackened partitions and smelted bunks. The army introduced Friday that it had recovered in Gaza the our bodies of two troopers who have been working on the base on Oct. 7.
Dinar, who visited the tunnel Friday, stated it was twice the peak and 3 times the width of different tunnels present in Gaza. He stated it’s outfitted with air flow and electrical energy and dives 55 yards underground in some factors. He stated it was clear that hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in addition to quite a lot of gas and workforce had been wanted to construct and maintain the tunnel.
Hagari stated the army deliberate to destroy the tunnel and proceed to “hunt” militants hiding in others.
“We will hunt them even if we need to go down to the tunnels,” Hagari stated. “We also need to do it with attention to the rescue of our hostages and the understanding that maybe some of them are in the tunnels.”
