BICOM

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced yesterday that it destroyed a Hamas tunnel built under the Kerem Shalom crossing, forcing its closure for “non-punitive” reasons.

The tunnel reached all the way to the Egyptian side of the border and was dug from Rafah at a length of approximately 1.5km and extended 180 metres into Israeli territory.

IDF Spokesperson Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis denied claims made by Hamas that the tunnel was merely intended for smuggling. He said the tunnel ran “beneath strategic sites,” including gas and diesel pipelines for the Gaza Strip.

“The fact that Hamas is digging a tunnel beneath this crossing is an absurd decision that demonstrates the cynicism of the Hamas terror organisation. This is the only crossing for goods into Gaza,” Manelis said.

It was the third tunnel to have been demolished in the past two months. Speaking about the IDF’s growing capability to locate and destroy the tunnel threat, Manelis said: “There are several ways of locating tunnels and there is a broad array of [means available for] preventing and destroying. On each occasion we chose a different method. Everything [was done] to match up the capability with the tunnel”.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that “the destruction of the attack tunnel network is a key feature of our policy of consistently striking Hamas’s strategic capabilities. The message to the leaders of Gaza and its citizens is clear — invest in the sanctity of life and not in [digging your own] catacombs”.

Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai informed the Palestinian Authority that the Kerem Shalom crossing would be closed on Sunday, which is the first time the border crossing has been shut down for “non-punitive” reasons. The crossing allows 1,500 trucks to enter into Gaza every day.

Also over the weekend, senior Hamas official Mohammad Hamdan was wounded in a bombing in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Hamdan was injured by an “explosion of a bomb placed under a BMW brand car,” a military source told AFP.

Lebanese news outlet Al Mayadeen, affiliated with the Hezbollah and Hamas’s political bureau in Lebanon suggested Israel may have been involved in the bombing, although this was denied by Intelligence Minister Israel Katz. “If we’d been involved, this wouldn’t have ended with him lightly wounded,” Katz said.

Hamas recently relocated its international activity to Lebanon after being expelled from Turkey and Qatar.