The Israeli military said Sunday it had destroyed a cross-border tunnel that ran from Gaza into Israel and Egypt, dug by the Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Palestinian enclave.
Residents in Gaza said Israeli jets bombed an area east of the southern town of Rafah, by the Egyptian and Israeli borders, late Saturday night. Israel confirmed the attack immediately after, but gave no details until Sunday.
“We understand this was a terror tunnel because it runs underneath strategic facilities,” Israeli military spokesman Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to gas and fuel pipelines, as well as an army position it ran under.
“It could also have served to transfer terrorists from the Gaza Strip into Egypt in order to attack Israeli targets from Egypt.”
Hamas did not comment.
Under border crossing
Conricus said the tunnel destroyed Saturday was dug by key operatives of Hamas and was 1.5 kilometers long (about 1 mile), penetrating 80 meters (260 feet) under the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Israel and into Egypt.
“It is definitely a possibility that an attack was imminent,” Conricus said, but would not elaborate further.
Kerem Shalom, the main passage point for goods entering Gaza, was shut down Saturday before the Israeli attack.
Jerusalem decision
Tensions have risen in the region since President Donald Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy on Dec. 6 by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Palestinians in Gaza have launched 18 cross-border rockets or mortars and 15 protesters and two gunmen have been killed by Israeli fire.
Escalation could easily occur, even though both sides have signaled they do not want that to happen.
During the last Gaza war, in 2014, Hamas fighters used dozens of tunnels to blindside Israel’s superior forces and threaten civilian communities near the frontier.
Other tunnels destroyed
The Israeli military said it has destroyed three such tunnels in the past two months, but that it was not seeking escalation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the tunnel was a “major terrorism infrastructure belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Hamas must understand that we will not allow these attacks to continue and that we will respond with even greater force,” he told reporters before boarding a flight to India for a diplomatic trip.
Israel has been constructing a sensor-equipped underground wall along the 60-kilometer (36-mile) Gaza border, aiming to complete the $1.1 billion project by mid-2019.
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