The IDF’s Nahal Brigade uncovered an extensive 10 km (6.2 miles) tunnel network underneath the Gaza Strip through which Hamas terrorists traveled from northern Gaza to its southern part in the first phase of the war. The forces acted as part of an operation aiming to eliminate underground threats at the Netzarim Corridor dividing the Strip.
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The IDF said that the lengthy underground network is now being dismantled, after parts of it were found to passed beneath the Turkish hospital in the northern part of the Strip, the main university campus south of Gaza City and also under Hamas's central prison.
“The 162nd Division located a network of underground terror tunnels connecting the north and south of the Gaza Strip. The forces gained operational control over the tunnel shafts, investigated the tunnels, and then destroyed a large part of the network,” the military said in a statement.
“Inside the tunnels, the troops located rooms including toilets, storage facilities for weapons and combat equipment, a branching tunnel shaft network, as well as the bodies of terrorists left in the tunnel,” the statement added.
"In recent weeks, alongside combat engineering forces, we’ve carried out significant operations to locate an underground tunnel network spreading from the north to the south of the Strip,understanding that the effort of dividing the Strip should also be carried out underground," Nahal Brigade Commander, Col. Yair Zuckerman, said.
The Nahal Brigade, responsible for manning the two checkpoints at the Netzarim Corridor, has noticed an increased movement of Gazans towards the southern part of the Strip in recent days, out of the approximately 250,000 people who remain in the northern part of Gaza.
The IDF doesn’t allow thg nearly one million Gazans who evacuated to the south, to return to their homes in the northern part of the Strip, mainly in Gaza City, and therefore encourages residents to move southward.
The military estimates that about 1,000 Palestinians are moving southward every day, given the state of the northern part of the Strip, where little aid is available and soldiers are still operating against Hamas terrorists.