Hamas has built a sophisticated network of tunnels that it has used to penetrate Israel to carry out terrorist attacks on civilians and soldiers and smuggle goods and weapons in and out of Gaza through the Sinai Peninsula.
By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News
At least three Hamas terrorists were seriously injured and five other are still missing after a tunnel they were working in collapsed on them on Saturday.
There are conflicting reports in the Palestinian media on the exact number of injured and missing.
Hamas has so far remained silent on the incident, as has been its conduct in most previous similar incidents, since it wishes to keep its terror-tunnel digging activities in the shadows.
If the report is confirmed, this would be the 10th tunnel to have collapsed in Gaza in recent weeks, and dozens of Hamas terrorists have been killed or injured in these incidents.
Last Monday, a senior Hamas field commander was killed when a tunnel he was in collapsed.
The repeated collapse of the terror tunnels are distressing to Hamas diggers, who are reportedly refusing to enter the tunnels out of fear they may be killed or injured.
The wet winter weather, Egyptian operations against the tunnels and possible Israeli involvement are all possible causes for the tunnel collapses.
Hamas has built a sophisticated network of tunnels that it has used to penetrate Israel to carry out terrorist attacks on civilians and soldiers and smuggle goods and weapons in and out of Gaza through the Sinai Peninsula.
The IDF destroyed most of the tunnels during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, but Hamas has since been working vigorously to rebuild the network, many times at the expense of innocent Gazans, from whom they steal building materials, which they use for military build-up.