Gaza terror tunnel (file)
Gaza terror tunnel (file)Flash 90

As part of operations to destroy Hamas smuggling tunnels from Gaza, Egyptian security forces recently found a large rigged tunnel in northern Sinai.

An Egyptian security source revealed the find, as reported by the Egyptian Al-Bawaba cited on Wednesday by Channel 10.

According to the source, terrorists were hiding in the tunnel with explosives ready for detonation. They had large quantities of weapons, and clothing similar to the uniform of the Egyptian army.

The last point brings to mind how Hamas terrorists in 2014 Operation Protective Edge infiltrated into Israeli territory with attack tunnels while wearing fake IDF uniforms, allowing them to conduct several lethal attacks.

The Egyptian source said that the tunnels were built with the aid of another organization, in an apparent reference to Hamas, and that they tried to renovate them and use them to hide and smuggle weapons.

Al-Bawaba's report did not openly state that the tunnel led from Gaza into Sinai, although such appears to be the case given the hundreds of smuggling tunnels found under the border.

The report surfaces even as the Egyptian military on Tuesday announced that two tunnel openings on the Egyptian side of Rafiah were found - it is likely the tunnels include the rigged one mentioned in the report.

Egypt has been working since October 2014 to create a massive buffer zone in southern Gaza. The operation has involved occupying a large swath of land at least one kilometer deep (over half a mile) along the 14-kilometer (9-mile) border, evicting thousands of Gazans, destroying their homes and mosques, and recently even creating a border moat.

The Egyptian army has even found an iron tunnel during its work to destroy the hundreds of tunnels.

Meanwhile on the Israeli border, a number of Hamas terrorists have died in tunnel collapses in recent days as the organization works to rebuild its attack tunnel system breaching into Israeli territory.

According to some estimates Hamas has succeeded in again digging tunnels into Israeli sovereign territory, and Israeli officials have sought to play down fears from residents in southern Israel who say they have heard Hamas diggers underneath their homes.

Just this Sunday Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to sharp criticism from Opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog (Zionist Union) on the topic, after Herzog accused the government of waiting for the terrorists to use the tunnels to attack Israeli civilians.

Ironically Netanyahu's response later on Sunday essentially confirmed Herzog's criticism, as he vowed to act - only after Hamas attacked first. The Prime Minister said, "if we are attacked from the tunnels in the Gaza Strip we will act with very great strength against Hamas."