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The IDF has discovered and destroyed a new Hamas terror tunnel from the Gaza Strip into Southern Israel, it was revealed yesterday.

The tunnel, discovered a week and a half ago, was 30-40 metres deep and had electricity, ventilation systems, communications lines and a rail track. It ran near to Kibbutz Holit, close to the Gaza border. Israeli bulldozers briefly entered the Gaza strip last week to destroy the Gaza entrance to the tunnel.

Hamas, in response, has claimed the tunnel was built in 2014 and was not newly dug. However, Israeli sources claim that at least some of the tunnel had been constructed much more recently.

According to several reports, Israel used new technology to detect the tunnel. After the 2014 conflict, Israel invested significant money and research capacity to develop this technology.

Haaretz reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that the tunnel was located using a “special technological breakthrough”, saying “It’s a very significant change in our capability to locate tunnels…We are investing a great deal of money in this … We are creating a type of defence and a capability to thwart tunnels, which doesn’t exist anywhere in the world.”

Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon commented; “The search for the tunnels has been at the top priority of the defence network and the IDF, and we have not held back our efforts… In the past few months, Hamas has experienced a number of cases of tunnel collapses, diggers who die as they work, and now also this discovery.”

The tunnel was the first discovered since Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 conflict between Israel and Gaza’s terror groups. One of the IDF’s major aims in that conflict was to destroy tunnels into Israel, which Hamas had used to conduct raids into Israeli territory and attempt kidnappings. The IDF destroyed at least 34 tunnels in 2014, including some that ran directly into Israeli villages and kibbutzim.