The IDF has exposed a four-kilometer-long, 50-meter deep “strategic” level tunnel established personally by Muhammad Sinwar, the right-hand man and brother of Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, it announced on Sunday.
The tunnel is the largest and longest in Gaza that the IDF has ever found, directly linking the tip of northern Gaza to Jabalia toward the southern end of northern Gaza while running almost exclusively through civilian areas.
IDF sources said that they identified the tunnel as connected with Muhammad Sinwar from various intelligence items, including from Hamas video surveillance, which the IDF later seized control of.
That said, Sinwar has not been hiding in the tunnel since the war started.
Some have said that though Yahya is the Gaza chief, Muhammad is his most important operator and would have difficulty controlling Hamas at the same level without his brother.
Hamas terrorists recently used Sinwar's tunnel, IDF says
In addition, the IDF said that Hamas terrorists were using the tunnel to attack the IDF throughout the current war and even as recently as a few days ago. Terrorists who attacked the IDF from the tunnel a few days ago were killed in battle with the IDF.
The IDF first started to identify and clear the tunnel already over a month ago, but it was so extensive and had so many levels and obstacles, such as blast doors, that it was not ready to be presented to the media until recent days.
It was discovered by a mix of the special anti-tunnel Yahalom Unit, engineers, and regular infantry working together with various technologies and intelligence to map out its full breadth.
One of the shafts from the tunnel comes as close as 400 meters from the Erez Crossing.
Besides that close point, the tunnel splits into many sub-tunnels, outfitted with heavy, deeper tunnel-digging machinery that the IDF has not previously encountered.
In addition, the tunnel has a variety of electricity connections, plumbing, communications, vehicles, extensive weaponry, and blast doors designed to block or slow any progress by the IDF.
IDF estimates that special tunnel units were brought from Khan Younis to expand the tunnel deep into northern Gaza using millions of dollars of investment.
Hamas becoming better at removing traces of hostages
The IDF has not found any signs of Israeli hostages having been held in the tunnel as it did at Rantisi Hospital.
However, since the Rantisi Hospital discovery of traces of hostages having been held there, it seems that Hamas has become more careful about removing such traces.
Also, if the hostages were merely moved through the tunnel once to get them from northern to southern Gaza, there might not be as many traces as at Rantisi Hospital, where it appears they were held in a single spot for an extended period.
IDF Yahalom commander and Col. Chaim Cohen said, “we have located a strategic tunnel which is so extensive that it indicates it was to be used for a large-scale invasion of the Israeli Gaza corridor.”
Cohen added that both of the Sinwar brothers had decided to invest huge amounts of resources in the terror tunnel instead of in schools and other institutions, which could have benefitted Gazan civilians.
“We will continue to pursue Hamas terrorists above and below ground, in every place, and there will be no place,” that is safe for them to hide, he said.
Despite the success of finding the tunnel, the IDF is expected to probe why its intelligence unit was not aware of the tunnel prior to the invasion.
For example, in May 2021, the IDF made a big announcement about having destroyed Hamas's "Metro," considered its largest tunnel network at the time.
In addition, the size and scale of the tunnel suggest that Hamas's tunnel network is not only larger than what the IDF expected on the eve of the war, but also significantly larger than what it expected even weeks into the invasion.
This could mean a longer presence for the IDF to destroy the full tunnel network beyond the end of the "main war," expected to conclude around the end of January.