An Israeli military source said Thursday that the occupation army needs two more years to completely destroy tunnels in the Gaza Strip, as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) demanded that Israel permit entry into Gaza of humanitarian supplies stuck in its warehouses in Egypt and Jordan.
Israel’s Channel 12 quoted an unnamed military source as claiming that the Israeli army has only been able to deal with about half the tunnels in the Gaza Strip, explaining that they are “waging a fierce campaign” against Hamas’ secret network, and that dealing with all the tunnels could take two more years.
“We fill their tunnels with a substance made of a mixture of soil and water, and we push it in enormous quantities. We have already poured more than 250,000 cubic meters of this substance into more than 150 kilometers of tunnels,” the Israeli source said, adding that it is a complex operation. “The idea that we can finish this story in a short period of time is wrong from the start,” he said.
However, the military official confirmed that there are tunnels the Israeli occupation army chose not to deal with, considering them “not significant enough and do not pose a threat.”
These statements come nearly two and a half years after the start of the Israeli assault on Gaza, and amid preparations to move to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which has not prevented Israel from continuing to carry out attacks in the Strip on an almost daily basis.
According to the latest statistics issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, the cumulative number of people killed since Oct. 7, 2023, rose to 71,851, in addition to 171,626 injured.
Israel’s daily shelling is not the only violation of the ceasefire agreement, as Israel is preventing aid from entering Gaza. UNRWA said in a statement Thursday that its humanitarian supplies of food, hygiene kits, medicines, and shelter items remain stuck in warehouses in Egypt and Jordan, and have been barred from entering Gaza since March 2025.
The UN agency’s spokesperson, Jonathan Fowler, explained that medical evacuations remain too limited, while the quantities of humanitarian aid entering the Strip remain far below the required level, despite overwhelming humanitarian needs. He pointed to the Gaza health system suffering a widespread collapse as a result of current conditions.
UNRWA called for ensuring the Rafah crossing is fully and sustainably opened, facilitating the movement of patients and the flow of humanitarian aid, and said the international community bears responsibility for urgent action to prevent further humanitarian deterioration in the Gaza Strip.
During the past month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced Israel’s cutting electricity and water to UNRWA facilities, warning that this measure would undermine the agency’s ability to carry out its humanitarian tasks. The occupation army also raised the Israeli flag over the agency’s headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood north of Jerusalem, alongside the continued operation to demolish facilities inside the compound.
In late October 2024, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, overwhelmingly approved two laws to ban UNRWA’s work in areas under Israeli control and to cut diplomatic relations with it.
Israeli criticism of the UN agency has sharply escalated since the start of the assault on the Gaza Strip, beginning with Israel’s accusation in January 2024 that some of its employees took part in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, and extending to the targeting of many schools run by the UN agency.
