Tunnel running from Rafah to Eshkol was originally destroyed during Protective Edge; another tunnel was bombed in the central Gaza Strip overnight; Lieberman: 'Hamas should invest the money in welfare of the Gaza residents, because by the end of the year its tunnel project will be eliminated.'

The IDF destroyed for the second time on Sunday a terror tunnel initially demolished during Operation Protective Edge, which Hamas has tried to put back into operations.

The tunnel, which runs from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip to the Eshkol Regional Council inside Israel, was flooded with materials rendering the whole network unusable.

"We did not use explosives. It (the tunnel) was filled with a certain material, with a certain compound," said the IDF's English-language spokesperson Lt.-Col. Jonathan Conricus, who added troops did not enter Gaza to destroy the tunnel, which reached several meters from the Israeli border but did not cross it.

The tunnel, which was partially destroyed in the summer of 2014, appears to be the first case of Hamas trying to "recycle" part of its devastated network by digging a new tunnel to connect with what was left of the old one, Conricus said.

 

"Overnight, IDF forces operated against underground infrastructure in the Rafah area," a statement by the IDF Spokesman's Office said.

 

"For several weeks now, we've been identifying Hamas activity, as they have been trying to rebuild underground infrastructure that was active during Protective Edge. We've been following this activity and decided to take this action to thwart it before Hamas could reconnect the tunnel to the old infrastructure and before the tunnel crossed into our territory. It did not pose a threat," the IDF continued. 

 

A spokesman for Hamas said the IDF was "marketing fake achievements" to boost the morale of soldiers and Israelis living near the enclave. Read more at YNET