Israel’s military says it has uncovered the largest Hamas tunnel in Gaza so far, a few hundred metres from a key border crossing.
The military said the tunnel is estimated to be 4 kilometres long (2.5 miles), which would make it the length of 40 football pitches.
A military spokesman called it the “flagship project” of the subterranean system Israel has set about to dismantle in its war on Hamas, which began on 7 October when Hamas pushed through the border fence and attacked communities in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, as well as taking 240 hostages.
Israel says its retaliatory bombardment and subsequent ground incursion into Gaza, which has killed nearly 19,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza, has seen hundreds of tunnels destroyed.
Footage published by the military shows a lone, rusted entrance buried in a sand dune in the northern tip of Gaza, just 400 metres from the Erez crossing into Israel. It is large enough to get a car through.
Inside, a gently-sloping, wide tunnel littered with tangled electric cable then descends into a steep-drop, according to an Israeli soldier.
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip— (AP)
“We estimate it is 50 metres deep and 4km long, and have found RPGs and AK-47s stored in depots. Many smaller tunnels lead off it,” said military spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
“This is the biggest tunnel we have found, so far . . . it was a flagship project.”
In additional footage Israeli intelligence said it had uncovered, the Hamas chief of tunnel construction, Muhammad Sinwar, is apparently shown driving through this subterranean system.
Mr Sinwar, who is also a senior military commander, has a reported $300,000 (£237k) bounty on his head, the highest of any bar his brother, Yahya, the leader of Hamas in Gaza.
The Israeli military claimed that “special digging machines” had been used to build this tunnel and that “millions of dollars” had been invested into the network.
Amid growing international pressure over the civilian death toll inside Gaza – the UK and Germany have called for a “strategic ceasefire” – Israeli military officials have been clear that the discovery and destruction of the tunnel system, nicknamed the “Gaza Metro” and estimated to be more extensive than the London Underground, is necessary to achieve their stated aim of “destroying Hamas” and quashing the threat of future attacks.
It alleges that Hamas chiefs, notably the Sinwar brothers, are using the tunnels to hide from Israeli forces. “Without demolishing the tunnel project of Hamas, we cannot demolish Hamas,” said Mr Hagari. “They can try to hide but we will hunt them, even if it means we have to go down.”
Israel has alleged that the militant group is using the tunnels to store ammunition and scores of weapons, as well as to house military command posts.
Israel’s military justified its raid last month on the al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, the largest in the whole region, by citing the existence of a military command centre built by Hamas directly underneath the building. It has yet to provide definitive evidence of this.
Displaced Palestinians gather in the yard of Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital on 10 December— (AFP via Getty Images)
As well as using them to hide weapons, Israel says Hamas have used the tunnels to launch surprise attacks from previously undiscovered entrances and exits.
At least 126 Israeli soldiers have been killed during the Gaza offensive, which began in late October, in part due to these surprise assaults by Hamas.
“The route has several branches and splits which form a wide and branched network of tunnels,” a statement from the Israeli military read.
“Along the route are sewerage, electricity, communication and telephony infrastructures, as well as the overhead doors that were designed to prevent the entry of IDF forces.
“The tunnel allows the movement of vehicles inside it and many weapons of the terrorist organisation Hamas were found in it.”
A military vehicle enters the Erez crossing, after the gate was destroyed during 7 October Hamas attack— (Getty Images)
As Israeli forces now press into southern Gaza, they are battling what they call the “diplomatic hourglass” given the rising civilian casualities inside Gaza.
Last week, the US national security advisor Jake Sullivan urged the Israeli forces to end their sustained bombardment of Gaza while US President Joe Biden described the aerial campaign as “indiscriminate”.
It is a marked shift from the early stages of the war in October when Mr Biden rallied behind Israel’s “right to defend herself”.
But Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister and one of only three members of its war-cabinet, made it clear that their ground incursion would continue until the tunnel system was destroyed.
“Hamas is a terrorist organisation that . . . has built infrastructure under the ground . . . and it is not easy to destroy,” he said.
