Israel went public Sunday with a military laboratory it set up in 2016 to pool anti-tunnel expertise and spearhead efforts to foil the cross-border digs.
The laboratory "uses innovative ground research, which includes scanning of cavities and their dynamics, (and) strives to develop new discovery and mapping techniques", a military statement said.
A video release showed soldiers, with faces obscured, poring over maps and computer screens at an undisclosed location.
IDF unveils anti-tunnel lab
(צילום: דובר צה"ל)
Israel offered no explanation for its publication about the laboratory, which followed the earlier neutralization of a guerrilla Hamas tunnel from the Gaza Strip.
The IDF said the tunnel, which it described as "long and of high quality," was neutralized over the past few days by filling it with cement. On the Gazan side, the tunnel connected to a chain of other tunnels, and its destruction could therefore be considered a significant operational achievement.
The tunnel crossed the border with Israel near the site of recent intensive Palestinian disturbances, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters. "I wouldn't think that it's a coincidence," he added, without elaborating.
Israeli army snipers have killed 31 Palestinians during the border protests, drawing international censure. The military says it is taking necessary action against people suspected of trying to damage the border fence or provide cover for Hamas attacks.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said geophysicists from his ministry were involved in the anti-tunnel efforts, as well as researchers from the Technion, an Israeli university, and from state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
An IDF captain, an electrical and chemical engineer by training, oversees the lab and a team of expert workers from a variety of technological and research fields, physicists, engineers, intelligence personnel and geologists.
The laboratory has already managed to locate and see to the destruction of five terrorist tunnels in the last few months. It has recently received a certificate of excellence from the Technological and Logistics Directorate of the IDF General Staff.