Israel targets Hamas’s labyrinth of tunnels under Gaza

Israel says it is striking parts of a secret labyrinth of tunnels built underneath the Gaza Strip by Hamas, as it continues to retaliate for the Palestinian Islamist militant group’s unprecedented cross-border attack on Saturday.

“Think of the Gaza Strip as one layer for civilians and then another layer for Hamas. We are trying to get to that second layer that Hamas has built,” an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said in a video on Thursday.

“These aren’t bunkers for Gazan civilians. It’s only for Hamas and other terrorists so that they can continue to fire rockets at Israel, to plan operations, to launch terrorists into Israel,” they claimed.

It is very difficult to assess the size of the network, which Israel has dubbed the “Gaza Metro” because it is believed to stretch beneath a territory that is only 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide.

Following a conflict in 2021, the IDF said it had destroyed more than 100km of tunnels in air strikes. Hamas meanwhile claimed that its tunnels stretched 500km and that only 5% were hit.

To put those figures into perspective, the London Underground is 400km long and is mostly above ground.