The IDF said Thursday that it thwarted a Hamas attack launched from a large tunnel in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, as the 7th Armored Brigade pushes into its second month of operations in the area ahead of a wider offensive planned for this fall.
According to the IDF, at least four Hamas terrorists emerged several days ago from the shaft of an 800-meter tunnel and charged a fortified position held by the brigade. The attackers were met by two alert reservists standing guard, who opened fire and repelled the assault. Other troops killed at least two terrorists before the remainder of the squad fled back underground.
Terror tunnel in the Zeitoun neighborhood
(Video: IDF)
The tunnel was later found to be in active use and equipped for long-term operations. Troops from the 99th Division, working with Yahalom combat engineers, uncovered rooms, supplies, and even a rocket-propelled grenade left on a mattress. The military released footage showing the discovery and subsequent destruction of the tunnel, which it said stretched nearly one kilometer.
“Brigade engineering forces, in cooperation with Yahalom, located a tunnel containing living quarters and weapons used by Hamas terrorists for military purposes,” the IDF said. “In other actions, the brigade, with air force support, destroyed additional terror infrastructure, seized weapons, and killed terrorists posing a threat to our forces.”
(Video: IDF)
The army says the goal of the current operation is to dismantle the remaining capabilities of Hamas’ Zeitoun battalion, most of whose terrorists—estimated at about 400—have already fled deeper into Gaza City along with evacuated civilians. Those who remain are operating in small guerrilla squads of three to 15 men, striking from ruins and booby-trapped positions.
In the past three weeks, the brigade says its forces have killed about 60 identified terrorists. One officer was lightly to moderately wounded by gunfire from an ambush hidden in a destroyed building. Soldiers also uncovered seven powerful roadside bombs planted under a main route between abandoned neighborhoods, any of which, the IDF said, could have destroyed a Merkava tank.
Brigade commanders said the campaign differs from six previous incursions into Zeitoun because this time the focus is on systematically demolishing structures and destroying tunnels beneath them. “This time we will eliminate the infrastructure of Hamas’ Zeitoun battalion, denying them places of refuge and survival,” the army said.
The IDF expects operations in Zeitoun to continue for another two weeks before the brigade rejoins its parent division, the 36th, for the next stage of the Gaza City offensive.