IDF destroys kilometer-long Hamas tunnel with rail system in northern Gaza

IDF troops unearthed and destroyed an underground attack tunnel route that ran for over a kilometer and contained a transportation rail in the Beit Lahia area in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday.

Engineering troops of the Gaza Division, the Northern Gaza Brigade, and the Yahalom Unit destroyed the tunnel route.

Infrastructure served to attack troops

The IDF uncovered the tunnel in the past weeks, the military stated. While examining it, troops found weapons, electrical infrastructure, and a transportation rail.

"Inside the tunnel, we found infrastructure that evidentiated that the route was used by Hamas in order to carry out terror activities against our troops," Major Sh., an engineering officer of the northern Gaza Brigade, said.

Throughout the Israel-Hamas war, the IDF has been operating to destroy Hamas's subterranean networks, which often run through large expanses.

Recent operations to demolish Gaza tunnel networks have occurred mainly in southern and central Gaza. In late August, the IDF dismantled a kilometer-long Hamas terror tunnel in the Rafah area in the Gaza Strip.

By the end of August, the IDF said it had demolished 80% of Hamas's tunnels in the Rafah area. 

Also in August, the military destroyed a tunnel running through 1.5 kilometers in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. 

In the center of Gaza, troops found several underground tunnel routes and dismantled a multi-story underground tunnel roughly three kilometers long.