Hamas on Sunday claimed the Israeli military was "marketing fake achievements" to boost morale. The statement came hours after the IDF announced it had foiled a Hamas bid to rebuild a terror tunnel in Rafah.
Israeli forces demolished a tunnel dug by the Gaza-based terrorist group to mount cross-border attacks on Sunday morning.
"The Israeli occupation is marketing fake achievements to keep the good spirit among its settlers, soldiers and the collapsing leadership, amid Palestinian steadfastness and the resistance which exceeded all Israeli expectations." Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the tunnel had been intended to connect to an older one Israel partially destroyed in the southern Gaza Strip during the 2014 war.
The latest tunnel is the first known case of Hamas trying to "recycle" part of its devastated tunnel network.
Conricus said Israel had followed Hamas' progress for some time and that the targeted tunnels will now be impossible to rebuild. Conricus said building the tunnels was a "futile effort" by the Islamic militants and a waste of resources that could have been put to better use to aid Gaza's destitute residents.
The tunnel had been dug inside the Hamas-ruled enclave several hundred meters away from Israel's border fence. Israeli forces did not cross the border into the Strip to render it inoperable but used new technologies to achieve their object, he said.
