Israeli military demolishes fifth Hamas tunnel in recent months

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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Sunday that it demolished a Hamas tunnel on Sunday. This is the fifth tunnel destroyed in recent months.

The tunnel originated in the eastern Gaza Strip and reached through to the Nahal Oz Kibbutz on the border between Israel and Gaza, said the Israeli army in a statement issued Sunday.

The route of the tunnel was identified by security forces and destroyed in an engineering operation on Israeli territory, said the Israeli army.

The IDF will not allow Israeli civilians to be harmed or Israeli sovereignty to be breached and will continue operating with determination in the face of all forms of terrorism, said the Israeli army.

Lt. Cl. Conricus said that the detection of the tunnel was not a recent thing, but the time had come to demolish it.

An Israeli soldier stands next to an entrance to what the Israeli military say is a cross-border attack tunnel dug from Gaza to Israel, on the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border near Kissufim, Israel January 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

The army said it holds the Hamas responsible for the events but does not seek to escalate the situation.

Tensions between Hamas and Israel have been running high in recent weeks with increasingly violent occurrences happening on the border.

Israel has faced criticism over its use of live fire along the Gaza border since March 30, while the European Union and UN chief Antonio Guterres have called for an independent investigation.

The military says its soldiers act to stop attacks, damage to the fence and infiltration bids, and says there have been attempts at all three.

Conricus said Israel had been monitoring the construction of the tunnel for some time. He said Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, began building it after the 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, including Hamas.

Israel has fought three wars with the Islamist movement Hamas since 2008, and the group has used tunnels to carry out attacks in the past. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for more than a decade, while its border with Egypt has also remained largely closed in recent years. Israel has also been building an underground wall around the Gaza Strip to stop tunnel infiltrations.

(Top image: Palestinian protesters hurling rocks at Israeli security forces during clashes in central Gaza city, April 13, 2018. /AFP Photo)

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