Israel's security forces last week discovered an underground tunnel linking Gaza and Israel, which was expected to facilitate a terror attack or kidnapping attempt inside the country, the army said on Sunday, as reported by The Times of Israel.
The tunnel, which an official said was particularly wide about 1.5 miles long extended from Abbasan al-Saghira and ended inside Israel about three kilometers from Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in the Western Negev.
The tunnel was found on October 7, military officials said.A security source said it was the most well-designed terror tunnel found by the IDF to date, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The Israeli Defense Forces' spokesman indicated the country waited a week to publicize the discovery because a search for explosives had still been underway.Eshkol Regional Council head Haim Jelin described the tunnel as "like a NY subway."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the discovery and neutralization of the tunnel was part of "an aggressive policy against terror... [that includes] prevention, intelligence activities, preventative measures, actions in response [to attacks] and, of course, Operation Pillar of Defense," a reference to to the November 2012 military operation by Israel against Hamas.
This was the third tunnel discovered this year. The previous two were packed with explosives, the IDF said.
Similar tunnels have been used in the past by Gazan terrorists, most notably for an attack in 2006 in which two soldiers were killed, and Gilad Shalit was kidnapped and held in captivity for over five years.
The IDF conducted on Tuesday a controlled explosion of the bomb-filled tunnel on Tuesday, according to The Jerusalem Post.
"The tunnel was blown up to destroy an additional Hamas terrorist infrastructure," the IDF said in a statement. "The IDF will continue to operate as is necessary to protect the residents of Israel," it added.
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