BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli navy 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 meters from the closely fortified Erez crossing and a close-by Israeli navy base.
The navy stated that it stretches for greater than 4 kilometers (2½ miles), hyperlinks up with a sprawling tunnel community throughout Gaza and is huge sufficient for vehicles to move by. 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 a minimum of three troopers and kidnapping some again to Gaza, the military stated. It was considered 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 round 1,200 individuals and took about 240 others hostage.
The unprecedented assault triggered a devastating battle that has raged for greater than 10 weeks and claimed greater than 18,000 lives within the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, in response to Palestinian well being officers. Israel says the destruction of Hamas’ tunnel community is a significant goal and that a lot of the underground community runs beneath colleges, hospitals and residential areas.
Israel’s navy, intelligence and political officers have come under heavy criticism for failing to detect the assault forward of time.
Maj. Nir Dinar, a navy spokesperson, stated that Israeli safety companies did not 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.
“So far as I do know, this tunnel doesn’t cross from Gaza into Israel and stops inside 400 meters from the border, which implies the symptoms received’t point out {that a} tunnel is being constructed,” Dinar stated. He added that the doorway, a round cement opening resulting in a cavernous passageway, was positioned underneath a storage, hiding it from Israeli drones and satellite tv for pc photos.
Whereas the navy was conscious that Hamas had an intensive tunnel community, Dinar stated they did not suppose the militants would have the ability to perform their plans for a large-scale assault.
“It’s no shock that this was the Hamas technique all alongside,” Dinar stated. “The shock is that they’ve succeeded and the scale of this tunnel … was actually stunning.”
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 large crossing was protected by safety cameras and navy patrols and the adjoining navy base. The crossing suffered heavy injury on Oct. 7 and hasn’t 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 are saying they’ve discovered weapons inside.
“At this level, that is the largest tunnel in Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief navy spokesman, informed reporters in a tour of the tunnel’s entrance on Friday.
Chatting with reporters on Sunday, Hagari stated troops had found a minimum of two different “city-sized” tunnels of comparable in scope, which they’re nonetheless mapping.
“This was a flagship mission that was ready, completed and prepared,” Hagari informed a information convention. He famous that tunnel was in use through the battle and that Israeli troopers had killed Hamas militants contained in the tunnel.
The military additionally confirmed reporters troopers’ barracks on the close by base that it stated had been set ablaze by the militants. They regarded just like the ashes of a furnace, with blackened partitions and smelted bunks. The navy introduced Friday that it had recovered in Gaza the our bodies of two troopers who had been working on the base on Oct. 7.
Dinar, who visited the tunnel Friday, stated it was twice the peak and thrice the width of different tunnels present in Gaza. He stated it’s geared up with air flow and electrical energy and dives 50 meters underground in some factors. He stated it was clear that hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in addition to a substantial amount of gasoline and workforce had been wanted to construct and maintain the tunnel.
Hagari stated the navy deliberate to destroy the tunnel and proceed to “hunt” militants hiding in others.
“We’ll hunt them even when we have to go all the way down to the tunnels,” Hagari stated. “We additionally have to do it with consideration to the rescue of our hostages and the understanding that perhaps a few of them are within the tunnels.”
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