Israel destroys Gaza “attack tunnel”
The Israeli military said it had destroyed a cross-border “attack tunnel” that ran from Gaza into Israel and Egypt, dug by the Hamas, Reuters reports. “We understand this was a terror tunnel because it runs underneath strategic facilities … It could also have served to transfer terrorists from the Gaza strip into Egypt in order to attack Israeli targets from Egypt,” Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said, noting that it ran under gas and fuel pipelines as well as an army position. Cornicus says the tunnel was 1.5 km long running underneath the Kerem Shalom border crossing, according to The Associated Press. “The exposure of the tunnel will apparently make it clear to Egypt that Hamas has tried to deceive them,” Ron Ben-Yishai suggests in an opinion piece covered by i24news.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated he would only accept a broad international committee as mediator in any peace process, Reuters reports. Abbas didn’t reject US participation in such a panel but redoubled his statements saying the US had disqualified itself from any negotiations after moving their embassy to Jerusalem; especially as a solitary entity.