IDF obliterates massive Hamas tunnel network snaking beneath Gaza: officials
The IDF has leveled a mile-long section of one of the largest known Hamas tunnel networks snaking beneath the Gaza Strip, officials said.
Members of the elite Yahalom unit and combat engineers with the 162nd Division detonated a large portion of a more than 7-mile-long tunnel located in central Gaza, the IDF said Sunday.
Dramatic video shows the moment the trigger is pulled, causing a mile-long plume of smoke to erupt out of the ground as the tunnel system caves in.
The destroyed section was used to connect Hamas’ military forces and served as an underground crossing route between northern and southern Gaza, according to the IDF.
The complete 7.5-mile-long tunnel system dwarfs the previous largest tunnel discovered in December near the Erez Crossing, which measured at about 2.5 miles.
It took about three months for the IDF to announce that it had completed the destruction of the 2.5 mile long tunnel, which was blown up and sealed with concrete.
It remains unclear how long it would take the IDF to completely demolish and seal off the 7.5-mile-long tunnel in central Gaza.
The IDF estimates that it has destroyed about 40% of Hamas terror tunnels, about double what US officials have estimated.
Along with the demolition operations, the IDF has decimated Hamas’ tunnel system through airstrikes and using water from the Mediterranean Sea to flood the corridors.
Sunday’s operation came as the IDF’s Nahal Brigade took out 18 Hamas gunmen in central Gaza on Saturday following battles with snipers, tanks and airstrikes, according to the Israeli military.
