Watch Video: Terror tunnel near kindergarten

This morning (Sunday) it was cleared for publication that IDF forces uncovered a tunnel last Thursday near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in the Gaza perimeter. It is estimated by security system, that the tunnel was dug for making a large-scale attack in a kindergarten in one of the nearby settlements.

The starting point of the tunnel, which is 2.5 kilometers long, is located in the village of Ebbesen el-Zariz, located between the town of Khan Yunis and the border fence with Israel.

Over the weekend, special forces of the Yahalam engineering unit conducted extensive tests along the tunnel to examine whether it has explosives and to detect the many burrows dug in it.

The tunnel has a number of openings and reaches deep into Israel, into an agricultural area near Ein Hashlosha. So far there is no information about when the attack was to be made, but the use of the tunnel, excavated in recent years, was apparently intended for strategic purposes and was "saved" by Hamas for another round of violent ground fighting against the IDF.

Most other terrorist tunnels excavated in recent years from the Gaza Strip into Israel have not yet been revealed. In 2006 seven terrorists entered from Gaza through a tunnel and s kidnapped the soldier Gilad Shalit.



"The tunnel was built for terrorist purposes and its exposure thwarted a potential terrorist attack," said today head of Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Sami Tourjeman. "This terrorist tunnel penetrated into Israel and thus violated its sovereignty. It is a most serious act, one can make use of these tunnels to harm civilians and soldiers, and it is a violation of the understandings of Operation Pillar of Cloud."

In addition, the commander stressed that the materials of which the tunnel was built are building materials that Israel transferred to Gaza for civilian use. "We have allowed the entry of construction materials into the Gaza Strip and Hamas took cynical advantage of our kindness and invested these funds for terrorist purposes," explained Colonel Turjeman. "Since this morning we have stopped building materials into the Gaza Strip. It's a necessity in view of the use we have seen that Hamas makes of it, instead of building for the welfare of the public, they build those tunnels."

General Turjeman stressed that "We will not ignore this. We shall continue efforts to find the tunnels. This tunnel can be used for terrorist bombing and bringing terrorists in, this is an operational infrastructure that can serve them for a number of opportunities."

Gaza Division commander, Brig. Mickey Edelstein, said, "We see this as a serious violation of the understandings and see Hamas as responsible for terrorism from Gaza. This is the third tunnel we discovered this year, and the most advanced, and we used new tactics to find it. There are other tunnels, we are searching for them and do what is needed to address those threats."

Haim Yalin, head of the Eshkol Regional Council said: "The tunnel was exposed on time thus avoiding a disaster, the cooperation between farmers who plow the fields near the border and IDF proves itself."

Mayors in the Gaza perimeter area called, following the discovery of the tunnel, to stop the plan to cancel the security of settlements surrounding the fence and funding of armored security vehicles.

Spokeswoman of Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council said: "Following the exposure of the tunnel near Ein Hashlosha: The Gaza perimeter heads of councils demand to immediately cancel the IDF 's intention to stop the security of surrounding communities and finance the armored security vehicles. These are puzzling and unrealistic decisions".

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!