The Israeli army says it has destroyed around 400 tunnel shafts in the Gaza Strip since the Gaza war began on October 7th. Many of the Islamist Hamas tunnels were under civilian hospitals, schools and houses, the military said on Wednesday.
According to Israeli information, there is a network of underground tunnels in the sandy soil of the Gaza Strip, which is around 45 kilometers long and around six to 14 kilometers wide and has more than two million inhabitants.
Some tunnels are large enough for vehicles
Some of the tunnels are concrete or supplied with electricity. On average they are two meters high and one meter wide, but some are also large enough for vehicles. To be able to withstand Israeli bombs from the air, some reach dozens of meters underground. Many entrances are said to be in residential buildings or mosques.
Israel’s army also said it uncovered a Hamas tunnel on the site of the largest clinic in the Gaza Strip, the Shifa Hospital. The exposed shaft leads to a tunnel with a length of around 55 meters at a depth of 10 meters, it was said at the weekend.
The Islamist Hamas violently seized power in the coastal area in 2007. She wants to destroy the state of Israel.
