The IDF has destroyed “the remains” of a terrorist tunnel that led from Gaza into southern Israel, apparently discovered during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.

The tunnel “penetrated into Israel from the Gaza Strip,” the IDF Spokesperson revealed this morning, Feb. 9 in a statement sent by SMS to media. “During the activity, forces discovered a cache of weapons and explosives,” the statement continued.

This indicates — at least to this writer — that either the tunnel was not completely destroyed at the time it was discovered last summer, or more likely, it has since been rebuilt and re-activated by its terrorist builders. That is a very ominous sign.

However, the IDF remained on Israel’s side of the Gaza border, according to the statement. “The tunnel, which was exposed during Operation Protective Edge, was demolished in order to prevent its rehabilitation in order to safeguard the security of the civilians of southern Israel,” the IDF Spokesman added.

Clearly that was done last summer as well; upon their departure from Gaza, IDF commanders stated clearly that all tunnels had been completely disabled before leaving.

Are we feeling safe yet? Wait — we’re not finished.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, head of the Independent Media Review and Analysis watchdog group, had similar questions about the curt statement issued by the IDF – and the information obviously left out.

Lerner sent back a question asking whether the terror tunnel “may remain intact one meter within Gaza beyond the Israeli side?”

In reply, the IDF Spokesperson clarified: “We are only reporting about the tunnel on the Israeli side. If you want to know about tunnels on the Gaza side, ask in Gaza.”

So there you have it. Israel no longer sees to it that terror tunnels in Gaza are completely destroyed when they are discovered. Hamas has received the message that it is free to build whatever underground terrorist network that it likes, as long as it does not cross the border into Israel, even beneath the boundary.

Perhaps that’s got to do with the international community shaking its virtual finger at the Israeli government, with its “Nu Nu Nu.” All those warnings about how it is “absolutely essential” to move forward immediately with the “economic rehabilitation” of Gaza.

How lovely; more money for tunnels and better photo ops for Hamas with the “poor, forgotten refugees from the Gaza war.”

Um … Are southern Israelis still feeling safe?

UNRWA said Tuesday it has suspended it program  rehabilitate Gaza, which may be good news for Israel since it says material shipped to Gaza are also being used to rehabilitate terror tunnels.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told President Reuven Rivlin in New York Monday night that the United Nations has sent a team to Gaza to investigate assertions by Israel that metal and cement shipped into Gaza are being used for tunnels as well as homes.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told The Jewish Press he is not aware of any money being used for the tunnels, some of which have been identified by the IDF as newly constructed.

The UNRWA program to help Gazans, whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hamas rockets as well as Israeli fire in last summer’s war, is dependent on pledges of $5.4 billion, including $720 million for UNRWA, made by foreign donors at a conference in Cairo last October..

“The gap between expectations after the October Cairo conference and present reality is widening. There are genuine fears that if UNRWA halts this program, the consequences could be dramatic,” said Gunness.

He added, “All of the money that we can dispense has been spent. There is no more money.” He also stated that no money is missing.

There are two UNRWA aid plans, one for rental subsidies and the other for cash payments for Gazans to buy materials.

The Jewish Press has learned that most of the money that actually was turned over to UNRWA came from Saudi Arabia, followed by the European Union.

The constant threat of violence from Gaza is often fueled by great expectations, and the halt to work for homes in Gazans could stir up the locals again.

And what happened to all of the pledges?

Par for the course, most Arab countries have not lived up to their promises.

For example, Qatar pledged $1 billion.

With the price of oil having caved in since October, perhaps the richest country in the world, which has investments of more than $100 billion, cannot find the shekels for its poor brethren in Gaza.

Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad may need the small change for the maid to clean his home in London, for which he paid $62 million and then spent another $110 million to refurbish, complete with marble bathrooms.

The leader of Al-Qassam Brigades, which is a part of Hamas, publicly admitted that Hamas is rebuilding its terror tunnel network. The Gaza-based newspaper Al-Resalah was invited to send reporter Mahmoud Foda to a tunnel site on Sunday, where he was shown the diggers hard at work repairing a tunnel that had been bombed by Israeli planes during Operation Protective Edge.

The commander of the digging team, Abu-Khaled, admitted that the tunnel’s repairs were started “during one of the humanitarian ceasefires reached during the war.”

This admission shows Hamas was using ceasefires reached for humanitarian ends as part of their war strategy.

There have been previous indications that Hamas was engaged in a rebuilding effort after Protective Edge. In mid-September, Al-Qassam Brigades had announced that Ahmad Riyad al-Hadad had died while engaged in “underground activities”, without specifying what they were.

Earlier this month, Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson announced at a rally “the tunnels of Al-Qassam are fine, thank God. Our men will begin the next battle with their feet on the ground in Nahal Oz….and the other settlements around Gaza.”

Seen together with the missile test launches reported over the last two months, signs point to Hamas preparing for another conflict. A senior Israeli diplomatic source, quoted in Israeli media, said “Hamas did not wait a single moment after the last round of fighting, and began its rearmament in anticipation of another round”.

What Israel’s response will be to Hamas’ aggressive drive to repair its attack capabilities remains unknown.

A Hamas terrorist died on Thursday night in a Gaza terror tunnel, according to a Ma’an news report.

The 21 year old resident of Gaza City was working in a terror tunnel when he had a “work acciden”t and was killed.

Ken Yirbu.

Yesterday we reported on a suspected terror tunnel and 3 tunnel openings discovered inside a Kibbutz.

Residents and the IDF were concerned they were terror tunnel from Gaza, and IDF guards were set up at the entrances.

IDF engineers have determined that they are not terror tunnels.

Channel 2 TV reports that 3 suspected tunnel piers were found inside one of the Gaza border communities.

The piers were found next to a kindergarten and a playground, just 100 meters from resident’s homes.

It isn’t clear whether these piers are dug out terror tunnels, or natural sinkholes connected by a tunnel.

The IDF has posted guards near the tunnels as a welcoming committee, just in case the tunnels are to be used for terror purposes.

IDF engineers will examine the holes and tunnel in the coming days to determine what the tunnel is.

The IDF stated, when they pulled out the ground forces from Gaza, that Israel’s residents can return to their homes in the south as the tunnel threat had been eliminated.

Israel destroyed 31 terror tunnels during the operation, 11 of which exited inside Israel.

Over the past few weeks, Hamas executed dozens of tunnel excavators, according to a Mako report.

A source in Gaza, familiar with the tunnel industry, told Mako that Hamas suspected these tunnel diggers had information on the location on the tunnels, including their entrances and exits. Hamas was afraid the diggers could have passed the information on these tunnel to Israel.

The source said that most of the workers who dug the tunnels did not know their actual locations.

Truckloads of blindfolded workers were brought inside buildings, and searched to make sure they had no phones, cameras or GPS devices on them. They were not allowed outside as they dug the tunnels, so they would not know their exact location.

The Hamas terrorists were always masked so the workers couldn’t identify them.

A tunnel being dug in Rafah in 2013.

The workers were paid between $150 to $300 a month for 8 to 12 hour shifts. The workers employed were the professional (smuggling) tunnel diggers from the Rafah and Khan Younis areas.

At the end of the tunnels construction, Hamas murdered dozens of the tunnel diggers they suspected as collaborators with Israel, even if just based on rumor.

Some were murdered when it was discovered they simply had previous connections to Israeli civilians.

The Gazan source said that Hamas was “very cruel”.

A 2012 report said that at least 160 children were killed while digging out the terror tunnels for Hamas.

During Operation Protective Edge, Israel captured 300 terrorists, including dozens that were involved in digging the tunnels or part of the rocket launch crews.