Another two Hamas terrorists have joined the growing list of diggers who have been killed or injured after the tunnel in which they were working collapsed.
Several Hamas tunnel diggers were rescued and two died in a tunnel in a Gaza after it was flooded by Egyptian forces last week.
The two bodies were recovered on Saturday, Hamas officials in Gaza stated, and seven other tunnel diggers were rescued on Thursday.
The Egyptian army has been conducting an extensive campaign to destroy the tunnels as part of a broader military campaign in the northern Sinai against anti-regime Islamic terrorists who, together with Hamas, have carried out several deadly attacks against Egypt’s security forces.
The Egyptian army has destroyed hundreds of smuggling tunnels as well as thousands of homes, and it evicted families from the border near Rafah, where it is creating a buffer zone with Gaza.
During the past weeks, Hamas has reported at least ten other deaths in several separate tunnel collapses.
Hamas has built a sophisticated network of tunnels that it has used to penetrate Israel to carry out terrorist attacks on civilians and soldiers and smuggle goods and weapons in and out of Gaza through the Sinai.
The IDF destroyed most of the tunnels during the summer of 2014, but Hamas has since been working vigorously to rebuild the network, many times at the expense of innocent Gazans, from whom they steal building materials, which they use for military build-up.
Speaking last month, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said the army is operating to counter the threat of Hamas terror tunnels and that this is its top mission for 2016, while preparing for all developments and eventualities.
In the meantime, Hamas has vowed to proceed with its offensive against Israel.
“The resistance factions are in a state of ongoing preparation underground, above ground, on land and sea,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh boasted at a rally honoring seven dead Hamas terrorists killed in a tunnel collapse.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel
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