…So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee. (Deuteronomy 13:6)
Israeli Security Forces have unearthed and neutralized a tunnel leading from Abbasan al-Saghira in the Gaza Strip to Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in Israel, the IDF announced on Sunday. The army believes the tunnels was going to be used to carry out a terrorist attack or kidnap an Israeli soldier according to The Times of Israel. The tunnel was over 120 meters in length and represents a grave attempt by Palestinian terrorists to perpetrate an attack, army sources added.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the entrance to the tunnel was apparently dug next to a kindergarten.
On Tuesday, IDF Chief Benny Gantz warned that the next war could be sparked by a “tunnel packed with explosives that reaches a kindergarten.”
The IDF said it took several days to destroy the tunnel and cleared information for publication on Sunday.
“The tunnel was discovered in time, and disaster was averted,” Haim Yellin, head of the Eshkol Regional Council, told Ynet News on Sunday.
Alon Shuster, head of the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, which borders Gaza, called on the IDF “to continue securing towns in the area and to fund security vehicles” for patrols along the Gazan border.
MK Omer Bar-Lev (Labor) on Sunday called on the IDF to provide maximum security to residents of communities near the border with the Gaza Strip in light of the discovery.
“This morning we received a reminder that terrorism exists and that it could erupt at any moment,” Bar-Lev said in response to an announcement earlier in the day of the IDF’s discovery of a Palestinian terrorist tunnel.
Hamas and other terror groups have used tunnels in the past to kidnap soldiers, including the capturing of Gilad Shalit. Former national security adviser Giora Eiland, who investigated the Shalit kidnapping, said Gazan tunnels were no less a threat than the territory’s arsenal of homemade weapons.
“They have surprised us in the past with their capability of digging deep and fast,” he told Army Radio.
On November 8, 2012, just days before launching the offensive, Israeli forces discovered a massive tunnel running out of Gaza. The forces briefly entered Gaza to search for explosives, and, on their return, while repairing the border fence, an “extremely large” amount of explosives detonated on the Gaza side of the border. One soldier was very lightly injured, and an IDF jeep was damaged by the blast that reportedly launched it 20 meters.
Analysts have noted that Gaza’s Hamas rulers, feeling the squeeze from a massive Egyptian operation to destroy smuggling tunnels into the Sinai, may seek to ignite tensions with Israel.
