It is believed the tunnel was designed to smuggle in weapons.

Israel’s military has uncovered an unusually large Hamas tunnel close to the Gaza-Egypt border that appears to have been for vehicle passage.

The IDF said its forces were working to dismantle the 9ft high tunnel along the Philadelphi Corridor, an Israeli codename for the strategic stretch of land seized in May 2024 that runs adjacent to the border.

Photographs showed the huge concrete-fortified underpass less than 328ft from the border fence, with a combat vehicle easily passing through its high walls buried beneath the desert terrain.

“At this stage, the troops are continuing with the investigation and neutralisation of the underground tunnel route, as well as other large-scale routes that were found,” the IDF said.

“The IDF will thoroughly destroy all the underground infrastructure on the Philadelphi Corridor and will act with determination to prevent their formation in the future.”

The force did not comment on whether the tunnel led to Egypt. However, elite units have for months been tasked with combing the landscape for smuggling routes and claiming to have demolished dozens.

Since the beginning of Israel’s major offensive inside Gaza, locating and destroying Hamas’s vast warren of tunnels has been a central but elusive war aim.

The network is believed to stretch for 310 miles with up to 5,700 shafts, a far higher estimate than Israel expected before Oct 7.

As Israel bombarded the Strip relentlessly from above, thousands of Hamas militants buried themselves deep within the labyrinth below, dubbed Gaza’s metro.

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is believed to still be alive “10 storeys underground”, Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, has said.

Thwarting Hamas’s ability to use the tunnels has been the lynchpin in Israel’s effort to capture its top leaders and rescue the surviving hostages.

But the sheer depth and scale of the iron and concrete tunnels have prevented this. They form an impossible landscape where guerilla fighting rules and booby traps, ambushes and dead ends await Israeli soldiers unaccustomed to such a dark and unfamiliar battlefield.

Israeli officials now believe it could take years for its military to truly dismantle tunnels, a timeframe its military will not be allowed amid international pressure to end the nearly 10-month war, which has left more than 39,500 Palestinians dead, according to Gazan authorities.

In July 2024, an IDF assessment revealed much of the tunnel network was in a “good functioning state” in many parts of Gaza, including Rafah, while tunnels in Khan Younis have already begun to be mended.

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