The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) destroyed two more border tunnels March 18 in response to the detonation of two explosive devices near the Gaza fence over the weekend. After the operation, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman promised that by the end of the year, the Palestinian group’s entire tunnel project would be history. "Israel destroys one Hamas tunnel after another, systematically and based on quality intelligence and ground-breaking technology,” he added.
Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories Yoav Mordechai derided the ambitious tunnel project in which Hamas has invested vast sums of money, terming it ostentatious and pointless. "With all of the cement, iron, electricity and resources the terror organization Hamas is investing in the tunnels that the IDF effectively eliminates time after time, they could have built a pyramid, a world wonder. However, Hamas' terror tunnels are a world wonder of stupidity," said the major general in a statement.
Since the October 2017 operation that destroyed a cross-border tunnel dug by the Islamic Jihad, and killed at least 14 of the group’s militants and Hamas operatives, the IDF has bombed or blocked five additional tunnels along the border with the Gaza Strip. Israel has made it clear to Hamas that it has developed the operational and intelligence capabilities to precisely map the tunnel network and destroy it.
The extent of Hamas' underground project was exposed during the summer 2014 war with Gaza, codenamed Operation Protective Edge. The country’s defense agencies came under harsh criticism for being caught unaware and failing to control the new threat in time. In February 2017, the state comptroller issued a stinging report saying the IDF had failed in its handling of the threat and worse, had not known the extent of the project, which posed a serious danger to residents of southern Israel. According to the government watchdog’s report, the political echelons should have instructed the IDF to concentrate on this threat at the start of the military campaign, and doing so would have prevented the July 2014 killing of five Israeli soldiers in an outpost near the kibbutz of Nahal Oz by Hamas fighters who infiltrated Israel through a tunnel and then used it to flee back to the Strip.
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