The Israel Air Force on Saturday night destroyed a Hamas attack tunnel stretching from the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip into Israeli territory and continuing into the Sinai Peninsula. The military said that the passageway was used to smuggle terrorists and ammunition from Egypt into the blockaded Palestinian enclave. Reaching 180 meters into Israel, the tunnel passed below several strategic assets, including a gas pipeline and the Kerem Shalom crossing, through which humanitarian goods are transferred on a daily basis into Gaza. In response, the army reiterated in a statement that it would act against any violations to Israel’s sovereignty, but qualified that it does not wish to bring about an escalation in tensions that have persisted since U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital. In the weeks thereafter, more than forty rockets were fired from Gaza towards southern Israel, some landing in populated areas, prompting dozens of retaliatory air strikes primarily targeting Hamas infrastructure. Overall, Israel’s army has demolished three cross-border tunnels emanating from Gaza since October, including one built by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group. During that operation, multiple high-ranking members of the Iranian proxy were killed along with two Hamas operatives. The Israeli military has invested heavily into developing new technologies and intelligence-gathering capabilities to uncover and neutralize tunnels from Gaza and is in the process of building an underground barrier spanning the entire border with the Hamas-run enclave. In the aftermath of Saturday’s strike, Israel’s army for the first time publicly confirmed its ability to destroy subterranean tunnels from the air.