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Israel and Hamas appear remain on alert despite the signing of a permanent cease-fire deal through indirect negotiations in Cairo last summer
The paper quoted a military official as saying that the Israeli army is in the process of testing out three different advanced technologies for locating and destroying cross-border tunnels dug by militants belonging to Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip to stage attacks on Israel during conflict.
"We saw that it is very challenging to destroy the tunnels and that we needed to insert of a lot of explosives [into Gaza last summer] to destroy the tunnels. We want to do it quicker,” the official said.
“We are also focusing on mapping them out," he said.
Israel and Hamas appear remain on alert despite the signing of a permanent cease-fire deal through indirect negotiations in Cairo last summer.
The cease-fire had ended a 51-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which left over 2,160 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead and some 11,000 injured.
At least 73 Israelis were also killed during the offensive, most of which soldiers during ground battles with Hamas fighters inside Gaza.
Thousands of homes and much of the blockaded Gaza Strip's already-ailing infrastructure have also been destroyed or partially damaged by Israeli bombardments.
The Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement, had announced it had begun repairing its cross-border tunnels into Israel.
Hamas says it used cross-border tunnels, which lead into Israeli towns adjacent to the blockaded strip, during Israel's recent military onslaught.
Israel, for its part, says it destroyed 32 such tunnels during the offensive.
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