‘Hamas tunnel destroyed’

OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS: An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip destroyed a Hamas tunnel giving frogmen unseen access to the sea from their base, the Israeli army said on Sunday.

Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the tunnel, the first of its kind discovered by Israeli intelligence, was hit on June 3 in the north of the strip as Israeli aircraft pounded over a dozen militant targets in Gaza.

He said it was probable there were more like it not yet located by Israel. "We continue to monitor using all our operational, technical and intelligence capabilities that we have at our disposal," he added.

Conricus said that the tunnel ran from a military facility of Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas into the Mediterranean sea, "a few dozen metres away" at a depth underwater of two to three metres. "It could have facilitated hostile activity against the state of Israel," he said, adding that the tunnel’s underwater exit was about three kilometres from Israel’s border.