TEL AVIV – The IDF destroyed another Hamas terror tunnel on Saturday night that stretched from Gaza into both Israel and Egypt, the IDF spokesperson said on Sunday morning.
The tunnel was the third of its kind built by Hamas in the past two months, the IDF said, and was intended to smuggle terrorists and weapons from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, possibly for a planned attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The crossing is used to transport more than five million tons of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the spokesperson said. The tunnel, which was completely destroyed in an air strike, also passed below a gas pipe.
“This is a blatant violation of Israeli sovereignty, endangering the citizens of Israel and sabotaging the humanitarian efforts that Israel is making for the citizens of Gaza,” the IDF said, adding that “the Hamas terror organization repeatedly chooses to harm the welfare of Gaza residents.”
“The terrorist organization Hamas is responsible for everything happening in and out of the Gaza Strip,” an IDF statement said.
“The IDF will continue to use all the measures at its disposal, above and below ground, to thwart attempts to harm the residents of the State of Israel and to maintain the relative quiet in the area achieved after Operation Protective Edge.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the IDF strikes near Gaza on Saturday and said that “we are retaliating against attacks on Israel by very systematically attacking the [terror] infrastructure directed at us.”
Netanyahu added that “Hamas must realize we will not allow a continuation of these attacks and [we] will respond with greater force.”
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman also commented on the strike: “We performed a professional and precise [military] action. The destruction of the terror tunnel network is an essential component of our systematic policy to harm Hamas’s strategic capabilities. Our message to the Gazan leadership and residents of the Strip is clear: invest in the sanctity of life and not in death tunnels.”
The Defense Ministry further slammed Hamas for sending young people to riot at the border, ending in violence and clashes with Israeli forces. The riots, which Hamas claims to have been spontaneous protests against President Donald Trump’s December declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, are a calculated move by the terror group against Israel – and the presence of grenades on the Israeli side of the border prove this, the Defense Ministry’s liaison to the Palestinians said.
“Hamas terrorists send young people to riot at the [Gaza border] … while hiding behind them and claiming that these riots are spontaneous and peaceful,” Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said.
“Pictures of these grenades found inside Israeli land indicate the truth!” he wrote. “That is why 11 Palestinians have died and dozens of others have been injured in recent weeks.”
“This is the Hamas approach,” Mordechai said. “To hide behind and send young people to carry out violent riots. … Do not open the way for Hamas to exploit you. You are the only ones who pay!”
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