The IDF destroyed a Hamas terror tunnel that ran underneath Israel’s Kerem Shalom border crossing with the southern Gaza Strip as well as under the Egypt-Gaza border.
In a statement last weekend, the IDF said that Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck terrorist infrastructure in the Gazan city of Rafah last Saturday night. This was the third Palestinian terror tunnel found infiltrating Israeli territory that Israel has destroyed during the past two months.
“We know this was a terror tunnel because it ran underneath strategic facilities,” IDF spokesman Col. Jonathan Conricus said. “It could also have served to transfer terrorists from the Gaza Strip into Egypt in order to attack Israeli targets from Egypt.”
“This is a severe breach of Israel’s sovereignty. Hamas is responsible for the consequences and chooses time after time to jeopardize the welfare of the citizens of Gaza,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement. “The IDF will continue its efforts above and below ground to thwart any attempts to harm Israeli civilians.”
As a result of the operation, the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is a key transit point for the distribution of humanitarian goods into Gaza, was temporarily closed. Last year alone, 14,354 tons of textiles, 12,395 tons of agricultural equipment, 3.3 million tons of construction materials, 7,044 tons of medical equipment, 10,373 tons of electrical equipment and 568,764 tons of food were transferred to Gaza through Israel, the IDF said.
