Israel digs deep to thwart tunnel threat

Massive earthworks and mounds of sandy soil line the Israel-Gaza border as the Israeli military forges ahead with an ambitious subterranean barrier to detect and prevent attack tunnels from reaching southern Israel from the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli military officials yesterday touted the secretive project as a major deterrent against what Israel has seen as a strategic threat since the last war against Hamas exposed the extent of the tunnels. Israel has made uncovering the tunnels from Gaza a priority and in recent months has demolished at least three through a combination of intelligence, infantry operations and hi-tech sensors.

Israel began construction of a 65km long underground wall last northern summer, aiming to prevent Palestinian militants from burrowing towards Israeli communities along the border.

‘‘The technology really is groundbreaking,’’ Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said in a briefing with journalists on the border with the Gaza Strip.

‘‘The message to Hamas is, ‘We now have this system which can detect and destroy terror tunnels that violate Israeli sovereignty’.’’

Conricus said that the antitunnel

ISRAEL:

barrier under construction ‘‘provides a significant challenge for anyone tunnelling below’’, without elaborating.

Israel and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, have fought three wars since 2008.

During the most recent conflict in 2014, Hamas militants on several occasions caught Israel off guard by attacking through the underground tunnel network.

While Hamas fighters did not manage to reach Israeli civilian centres, five Israeli soldiers were killed in such attacks, which rattled the Israeli public.

Israel destroyed 32 tunnels during that conflict, and has prioritised anti-tunnel operations since.

Excavating machines, concrete mixers and hundreds of workers toil furiously as part of Israel’s deadly underground game of cat and mouse with the Gaza militants.

The barrier – dozens of metres below ground, studded with sensors and topped by a 9m metal fence – had an estimated price tag of US$700 million (NZ$958m) and was on track for its slated completion in mid-2019, a senior Israeli military official said yesterday.

–AP