Itongadol.- The IDF uncovered on Tuesday a terrorism tunnel linking the Gaza Strip to southern Israel, the army announced on Friday.
The tunnel stretched from the southern part of Gaza into Israel, the army added.
"The IDF will continue to act resolutely to track down all tunnels through the specialty and capabilities that we\’ve built up," an army spokesman said.
"The IDF sees the tunnel as an attack on Israeli sovereignty and a clear violation of agreements reached in Operation Pillar of Defense [of 2012]," it stated, adding that Hamas bore responsibility.
Security sources said it was the largest terrorism tunnel found by the IDF to date.
The IDF has not yet disclosed the exact location of the tunnel for security reasons. "It was discovered by the Gaza Division, which acted on intelligence that led to physical ground activities," one army source stated.
The tunnel stretches hundreds of meters into Israel, and its western (Gaza) section has still not been completely mapped out. In some sections, it is 20 meters deep, and in others, 8 – 9 meters deep, the source continued.
"We can say at this stage that this is a tunnel in which a lot of thought was invested. It is lined with cement on the inside. We believe digging work on the tunnel was last carried out only in recent days," the source said. It took many months to dig, according to IDF assessments.
Work tools and recent evidence of digging were found by the army, as well as equipment to safeguard the underground structure during winter conditions. Equipment found included electric drills and a generator.
"We have no doubt we disturbed them in the middle of work," the source said. "We\’ve recently increased efforts against tunnels, and have uncovered three over the past months," he added.
"We understand the tunnel\’s exposure is a blow to Hamas. Tunnels are an ethos for Hamas, and the source of many of its operational successes. As soon as it loses three tunnels in a number of months, that represents a major blow to it," the source argued.
Other terror organizations are copying Hamas\’s uses of tunnels, but the Gaza regime maintains a monopoly on them due its past experience, according to the source.
Late Thursday, Hamas denied reports that the IDF had uncovered a new tunnel underneath the Israel-Gaza frontier, claiming that the IDF had previously unearthed the underground passage, Palestinian media reported.
“It is an old tunnel that Israel exposed two months ago and jihad fighters worked to rebuild it," operatives from Hamas\’s al-Qassam Brigades told reporters in Gaza, adding that "there was no military or intelligence achievement by the enemy."
In October, the IDF uncovered a massive Hamas attack tunnel leading from Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, into Israel, complete with an electrical supply and phone lines. It took Hamas over a year to complete and was tall enough to allow people to stand fully upright.
The tunnel was constructed using approximately 24,000 Israeli concrete slabs which the IDF had permitted into Gaza to ease the crisis in the civilian construction sector.
The IDF said it uncovered three other tunnels leading from inside the Gaza Strip to Israel in 2013, the last of which was discovered in October.