The IDF’s 162nd Division found and subsequently destroyed a 10 kilometer-long terror tunnel that passed beneath a hospital and a university in Gaza.
The network to which the tunnel was connected was also used to link northern Gaza with southern Gaza, the IDF said.
The forces gained operational control over the tunnel shafts, investigated the tunnels and then destroyed a large part of the network.
The terror tunnel network connected the Turkish Hospital bordering Gaza’s central communities to the Isra’a University building in the south of Gaza City, and reached as far as the Zeitoun area.
IDF Nahal Brigade Commander COL Yair Zuckerman explains further:
This tunnel network was used by Hamas terrorists to move between different brigades in the Gaza Strip, including the Central Brigade to the Gaza City Brigade, among them the Nuseirat, Sabra and Zeitoun battalions.
Chief Operations Officer of the Nahal Brigade Combat Team, MAJ Ron, noted that his team and the Yahalom Unit discovered a segment of the tunnel that was 18 meters deep beneath the hospital.
Inside the tunnels, the troops located rooms including toilets, storage facilities for weapons and combat equipment, a branching tunnel shaft network, as well as the bodies of terrorists left in the tunnel.
Hamas has spent millions of dollars building its underground network of terror tunnels used for its military activities below schools, hospitals and residences across the Gaza Strip.
“The IDF will continue to operate to locate and dismantle Hamas’ subterranean network of terror,” the IDF said.
