The Israeli Army claimed this Tuesday to have found, during its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, around 1,500 tunnels used by the Islamist group Hamas.
A special forces unit of the Israeli army is responsible for locating and, in many cases, destroying these underground passages, according to a military statement.
That unit, the elite Shaldag commando of the Israeli Air Force, searches the tunnels for command posts and facilities used by Hamas to fight, according to the statement.
“Underground warfare is a combat strategy used by Hamas,” declared the Israeli army, which repeatedly denounces that the tunnels are located under “schools, hospitals, mosques, United Nations facilities and civilian institutions.”
On October 7, fighters from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel – carried out an attack on Israeli territory of major proportions. unprecedented since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, causing 1,139 deaths, most of them civilians, according to the latest report from the Israeli authorities, and around 250 hostages.
In retaliation, Israel declared a war to “eradicate” Hamas, which began with cuts in the supply of food, water, electricity and fuel in the Gaza Strip and daily bombings, followed by a ground offensive in the north of the territory and which In the meantime it also spread to the south.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which this Tuesday turned 74 days and continues to threaten to spread throughout the Middle East region, has so far left more than 19,600 dead in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, and more than 52,500 injured. according to the latest report from local authorities, and around 1.9 million displaced, according to the UN, plunging the overcrowded and poor Palestinian enclave into a serious humanitarian crisis.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, more than 280 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by Israeli forces and in settler attacks.
Source: TSF
