Members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. (Wagdi Ashtiyeh/Flash90)
Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Brigades provided Iranian TV with a video claiming that it has built a new, concrete tunnel that reaches Israel.
Hamas has allegedly constructed a new terror tunnel that reaches Israel, according to a video provided by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade to the Iranian Arabic-language news channel Alalam. The tunnel is made of concrete and extends 3.5 km (2.2 miles). The veracity of the report is in doubt, though there is no question that Hamas has been rushing to rebuild the tunnels destroyed in Operation Protective Edge.
The video footage shows several masked terrorists from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade giving a tour of the tunnel to a female reporter, as well as reciting prayers during Ramadan. The terrorists tell the reporter that they intend to use the tunnel to attack Israeli civilians in the next round of fighting. However, the film may have actually been recorded in one of the tunnels destroyed by the IDF last summer.
Israel destroyed over 30 tunnels over the course of Operation Protective Edge, launched last summer to put an end to the constant rocket fire from Hamas in Gaza. The tunnels were part of a plot by Hamas to smuggle terrorists into Israeli communities in the south, where they would then kidnap and kill as many civilians and soldiers as possible. Since the end of the conflict, Hamas has been diverting cement intended for reconstructing civilian homes in order to rebuild its military infrastructure, including training bases and tunnels.
Tunnels have a number of strategic advantages for terrorist organizations. They are difficult to detect and cannot be destroyed by aerial bombardment, meaning that the IDF would need to deploy ground troops in Gaza in order to collapse them completely. Israel is currently working on the early stages of a new technology that would facilitate tunnel detection. The US Congress also approved funding for joint US-Israeli Research and Development on tunnel detection technology.