Heavy rains expose Hamas terror tunnel just hundreds of meters from Gaza border fence

Severe weather over the past few days exposed a major underground cavity and part of a previously undiscovered Hamas terror tunnel in northern Gaza, Ynet News reported, citing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). 

According to the report, the IDF said a collapse occurred several hundred meters inside the buffer zone following heavy rains and flooding over the past couple of weeks. The cavity that was exposed by the erosion is adjacent to the Gaza border in an area believed to remain under Israeli control in any future security arrangement. It is inside the Yellow Line, where the military is still carrying out operations to find and destroy Hamas infrastructure. 

Golani Brigade 12th Battalion soldiers discovered the cavity approximately 800 meters (about half a mile) from the border fence, opposite Kibbutz Kissufim in the Gaza Envelope. The soldiers noticed a depression in the terrain caused by the heavy rainfall and erosion, which led the IDF to isolate the area and begin a detailed examination by combat engineering troops. 

IDF officials believe the cavity is part of Hamas’ extensive tunnel infrastructure, which may have been missed in previous operations to locate and destroy tunnels built by the terror group. The IDF is currently examining the tunnel’s route and any possible branches.

On Monday, The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF is in a "race against time” to locate and destroy tunnel infrastructure inside the Yellow Line before an advancement to the next stage of the peace plan could see military forces withdrawn from the Gaza Strip. Israeli military officials do not trust any other body or organization to tackle the task of finding and dismantling Hamas tunnels. 

The presence of the tunnels is viewed as a significant security threat to Israeli communities in the Gaza Envelope. The JPost cited an anonymous security source who stated, “The scale of the IDF’s engineering equipment, in line with the number of tunnel-search focal points in the Gaza Strip, indicates the huge intelligence gap that preceded the war regarding the entire tunnel world of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.” 

“Military Intelligence did not fully understand how Hamas integrated the different types of tunnels in different areas as a foundation of its combat doctrine on the one hand and a way of life on the other,” the source continued. “We did not understand the size of the project and the importance Hamas attributed to the tunnels, and what is happening now is an attempt to close the gap, to locate these tunnels and destroy a massive project of decades.” 

The IDF says the tunnel detection efforts are ongoing. In October, Defense Minister Israel Katz told U.S. Vice President JD Vance that over 60% of Hamas' tunnels were still intact as of the start of the ceasefire and that “demolishing the tunnels is the most important joint mission in demilitarizing Gaza in accordance with the Trump plan.”