Israel Destroyed Hamas Terror Tunnel That Stretched Out To Sea
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s military destroyed a Hamas terror tunnel that reached several yards into the sea, which would have allowed the group’s naval commandos to launch an attack on Israel from its coast.
The tunnel was destroyed by the Air Force on June 3, when Israel carried out several airstrikes on Gaza in retaliation for rocket and mortar fire on southern Israel, the IDF said in a statement issued on Sunday, a week after the airstrikes.
The IDF said that it has known about the tunnel for several months and was waiting for the right time to destroy it. Hamas divers would have been able to discretely enter Israel in a short amount of time by using the tunnel, according to the IDF.
“The IDF will not allow any threat to the security of the State of Israel and will continue to act with determination against terror of all kinds. The IDF is determined to continue performing its task of defending the citizens of the State of Israel and its sovereignty,” it said in a statement posted on social media.
Hamas has been increasing its naval prowess and power for some time, a senior Navy official said in a statement.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO