Israel develops system to detect Gaza tunnels

The Israeli army is researching a new system for detecting the tunnels dug by Islamic militants to infiltrate Israel from Gaza.

Disclosure of the innovation – said to have been developed by Israel’s Talpiot army unit over four years – was made after a month-long ground incursion into the coastal Palestinian territory during which military officials said they had found and destroyed more than 30 tunnels built by Hamas and other extremists.

Destruction of the tunnels was the main goal of the Israeli offensive on Gaza last month.

Operational tests on the fledgling system are expected soon, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said. The developers have carried out pilot tests using sewerage tunnels in Tel Aviv.

The system could be installed along the 88km frontier between Israel and Gaza at a cost of between R3-billion and R4.7-billion, according to a senior military officer quoted by Yedioth. Daily Telegraph