The IDF has stepped up its efforts against the terror infrastructure in Gaza and, in a 36-hour operation that ended Thursday, discovered seven weapons-smuggling tunnels in the southern Strip along the Egyptian border. The kilometer-long tunnels were discovered near Dahiniye by an elite Engineering Corps unit and troops from the Golani infantry's Battalion 51. The tunnels were found within two kilometers of the border with Israel and, according to the IDF, had been used intensively in recent months to smuggle weapons and explosives from Egypt into Gaza.
The troops destroyed the tunnels in controlled explosions. IDF sources said they had been large enough for people to pass through and were most probably used by terrorists to leave Gaza on their way to Iran or Syria for training.
The army estimates that terrorists have dug dozens of tunnels over the past year. Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday terrorists had smuggled more than 112 tons of explosives into Gaza since Israel's disengagement from the Strip in 2005.