Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that he had ordered the military to prepare for the destruction of Hamas’s Gaza 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.”
Under the U.S.-brokered deal, the Jewish state is to receive, by a revised deadline of 6 a.m. on Monday, the 20 remaining living captives and the remains of 28 others. Ahead of this, the IDF has withdrawn to the “yellow line,” leaving it in control of just over half of Gaza. Israel will also free hundreds of Arab terrorists.
After the first phase is completed, Trump’s 20-point plan is to move to a second phase, in which Gaza is to be de-radicalized and demilitarized.
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 built up to 450 miles of subterranean infrastructure, up from a previous estimate of 250 miles.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told U.S. podcaster Dave Rubin on Oct. 9 that if he had one criticism of the Swords of Iron war, it was that it was taking too long, a fact he attributed to Hamas’s tunnel system.
“They got 350 miles’ worth of terror tunnels,” Friedman said, adding that the IDF didn’t understand what it was dealing with. “Hamas, I say, had the greatest home court advantage in the history of ground warfare.”
