Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Gilad, Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at Israel’s Defense Ministry, on Tuesday told Army Radio that the US participates to the tune of more than $100 million in an Israeli technological research project aimed at identifying and locating tunnels leading away from the Gaza Strip. According to Gilad, today there are no such tunnels leading into Israeli territory.
Israeli residents living in the communities alongside the Gaza Strip border have been reporting hearing digging noises beneath their home, and vibrations that cause their walls and floors to tremble. But so far the IDF, which attempted to verify the complaints, is insisting there are no tunnels down below.
MK Offer Shelakh (Yesh Atid), a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, told Israel Radio that Israel possesses the capacity to act against tunnels that appear to be reaching across the border, but it must use restraint so as not to ignite the next war under conditions that favor the enemy. On Monday, Shelakh told reporters in the southern region that Israel’s current ability to deliver a decisive blow against the Hamas digging is “quite limited” under the current international conditions.
