Israel says it uncovered 800 shafts to Hamas tunnels in Gaza, destroyed 500

Since the start of a ground operation in Gaza on October 27, Israeli troops have discovered 800 shafts connecting to Hamas’ extensive underground network of tunnels and bunkers, of which they have destroyed more than half, the military announced on Sunday.

Before the eight-week-old conflict in the Gaza Strip began, the Palestinian Islamist group claimed to have hundreds of kilometres of tunnels—a network the size of the New York subway system—for protection and use as operational bases.

They are now prime targets for Israeli airstrikes employing piercing bombs, and army engineers can use exploding gel that can be poured into the passageways and mapping robots to map them.

“The tunnel shafts were located in civilian areas, many of which were near or inside civilian buildings and structures, such as schools, kindergartens, mosques and playgrounds,” the military said in a statement on Sunday.

The statement, which summarised the anti-tunnel operations to date, came after soldiers had been telling the media almost every day that they had found access shafts in civilian locations.

The toll the war has taken on civilian casualties has alarmed foreign governments. On Saturday, Washington advised Israel to proceed with prudence.

According to the Israeli military, 500 of the approximately 800 shafts that had been found had been destroyed by a range of operational techniques, including as “detonation and by sealing off”. It further said that important tunnel routes spanning “many miles” had been damaged.

(With agency inputs)