Arrest of teenage Hamas operative leads to new details on Gaza tunnel

Network includes ‘resting rooms’ designed to allow elite Nehbe unit to move out sight of IAF

Security forces arrested a 17-yearold Hamas operative from Gaza last month, and announced Sunday that he had provided a wealth of details about Hamas’s elaborate network of tunnels across the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas operative was taken into custody on May 16 after crossing the electronic border fence into Israel. In a joint Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), IDF and Police investigation, it was learned the youth “belonged to the Beit Lahiya battalion of Hamas, and that most of his activities belonged to the tunnels,” the domestic intelligence agency said.

Hamas is digging attack tunnels in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and linking them to its defensive tunnels located in the heart of the coastal territory, the agency added. Gaza’s defensive tunnels are meant to allow the movement of armed fighters out of sight of the Israel Air Force, the Shin Bet said.

The Gaza tunnel network “includes resting rooms that are designed to serve the [elite Hamas] Nehbe [unit] during emergencies,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.

The tunnels contain multiple entrances, and some have been dug near civilian buildings across the Gaza Strip, including residential buildings, schools and mosques. This “endangers the civilian population in the Strip,” the Shin Bet warned.

The investigation also provided details about how the youth was recruited into Hamas’s ranks, the courses and training he underwent, and his activities in Hamas’s military wing.