Israel building underground wall around Gaza to foil Hamas tunnelers, report says

Israel is reportedly constructing a deep underground wall around the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to counter the threat of tunnels built by Hamas militants who rule the coastal enclave.

The move, which comes almost two years after Israel fought a deadly 50-day war with Hamas in Gaza, was reported by the Israeli news outlet Ynet.

Israel’s Defence Ministry declined to comment on the initiative.

On Friday morning, two oversize excavators sat silhouetted on the horizon here. Their location marked the point where the fields of this agricultural cooperative touch the edge of the Gazan town of Khan Younis.

The presence of more than 30 Hamas-built attack tunnels around the Gaza periphery shocked Israeli citizens during the 2014 war. At least 14 of the tunnels went under the fence line and into residential communities in Israel. Residents still sometimes report that they hear scraping and digging sounds beneath their feet.

In 2014, Israeli leaders said their reasons for fighting Hamas were to wipe out the group’s rocket arsenal and remove the threat of the tunnels. More than 2,100 Palestinians in Gaza and 72 Israelis were killed during that summer’s conflict. But a senior Israeli military officer said on Friday that the war had failed to eliminate the prospect of a future conflict.