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Israel army: Hamas tunnels ‘still highly efficient’ across Gaza

July 10, 2024 at 12:44 pm

Fighters of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, display their combat weapons in Maghazi camp July 19, 2023 [Ahmed Hasaballah/Getty Images]

An Israeli army report revealed the network of tunnels used by the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip are still “highly efficient”.

According to the Times of Israel, the report confirmed that nine months into the bombing campaign on Gaza, a large part of the Hamas tunnel network still enjoys “high operational efficiency and poses a security threat to Israel”.

The paper quoted an Israeli military official as saying that it may take years to dismantle the tunnels, and that “the underground passages must be mapped and the presence of traps and hostages must be checked before the army can destroy them.”

According to the report, Hamas had restored and rehabilitated the concrete and cement factories used to build the tunnels, indicating that the tunnels in Rafah were in a high state of readiness and made it possible to approach the border area.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said yesterday that the Israeli negotiating delegation discussed in Cairo the establishment of an underground barrier along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The authority added that Israel intends to hand over civilian control of the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor to Egypt in the event of an agreement on Gaza being completed, while the Israeli occupation army indicated that “some of the limited paths of [Hamas] tunnels in the Philadelphi axis border area with Egypt had been destroyed.”

In January, Israeli defence ministry officials said the Hamas tunnel network in Gaza ranges in length from 563 to 724 kilometres, noting that Israel is facing fierce resistance, even in the neighbourhoods it previously invaded in the northern, eastern and central Gaza Strip.

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