Red Cross providing aid in Gaza.
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The collapse came a day after another Palestinian was killed when an smuggling tunnel caved in north of Rafah.
Spokesman Iyad al-Bozom said the allegations were “aimed at inciting against the Gaza Strip and causing tension in the relationship between the Strip and the Arab Republic of Egypt (while) working to tighten the siege”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened Hamas, last Sunday, if it used tunnels in possible attacks against Israel.
During the 2014 conflict, more than 2,322 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip – the vast majority of them civilians – and 11,000 others injured, while much of the strip’s vital infrastructure was destroyed by fierce Israeli bombardment.
On Tuesday, Eizenkot called combating the Gaza tunnel threat the top priority for the IDF in the coming year.
Hamas on Monday denied Israeli accusations that wounded Islamic State group fighters from Egypt had been smuggled through tunnels to receive medical care in the Islamist-run Gaza Strip. “That’s why they are now using their best forces to complete the tunnels quickly”.
“We have advanced capabilities”, Eisenkot said at an academic conference in Herzliya outside Tel Aviv, apparently referring to a rumored Israeli-developed underground tunnel detection system.
In the past, Hamas put most of its resources into its rocket arsenal, but over the past five years Israel has deployed its Iron Dome missile-defence system, which has succeeded in intercepting close to 90% of the rockets fired towards Israeli towns.
Israeli and the Egyptian army forces have launched a campaign to destroy the tunnels.
The Hamas leader further highlighted the power of the resistance group, saying the equations of deterrence have changed and Hamas has become part of the Axis of Resistance in the region. “This weapon will have the final say and will turn the table on Israel’s intentions to wage a new war on the Gaza Strip”.
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Since early 2015, 16 al-Qassam Brigades members have been killed in the Gaza Strip during the tunnel excavation works, 10 of them in 2016, according to statistics from the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza.
