IDF dismantles Gaza tunnel used in deadly attack on soldiers

Israeli forces over the weekend worked to destroy a Hamas tunnel that terrorists used to kill three of their fellow soldiers 11 months ago, the Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday night.

“Troops from Unit 367 from the Kfir Brigade, under the command of the Northern Gaza Brigade, have been operating in the Beit Hanoun area of the Gaza Strip to dismantle the remaining terrorist infrastructure in the area, both above and below ground,” according to the IDF.

Overnight Friday, Unit 367, together with the IDF’s Yahalom combat engineering unit, dismantled the 0.6 mile-long tunnel that was used in the deadly assault on Capt. Ilay Gavriel Atedgi, 22, Staff Sgt. Netanel Pessach and Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Hillel Diener, 21, in late Dec. 2024.

The three soldiers, all members of the Shimshon Battalion 92 of the Kfir Brigade, were killed by terrorist gunmen that emerged from the tunnel.

The statement noted that the targeted infrastructure was located east of the so-called yellow line, in accordance with the U.S.-brokered truce deal.

Israeli soldiers “continue operating in the area to remove any immediate threat to the troops and to the residents of the western Negev, in order to ensure the security of Israeli civilians,” the army’s statement concluded.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Oct. 12 that he had instructed the IDF to prepare for the destruction of Hamas’s tunnels as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to disarm the terrorist group.

“The major challenge for Israel after the [first] stage of returning the hostages will be the destruction of all of Hamas’s terror tunnels in Gaza, both directly by the IDF and through the international mechanism that will be established under U.S. leadership and oversight,” Katz tweeted.

“This is the primary meaning of implementing the agreed principle of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip and disarming Hamas,” wrote the defense minister. “I have instructed the IDF to prepare to carry out the mission.”

In January 2024, The New York Times reported that Hamas’s network of terror tunnels was more extensive than previously thought, with new assessments indicating then it had upward of 5,700 entry shafts.

Following intensive operations in the Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis, Israel came to believe that the Islamist organization had built up to 450 miles of subterranean infrastructure, up from a previous estimate of 250 miles.