YONI BEN MENACHEM -- During a visit last week by senior members of the Trump administration to Israel, Defense Minister Yoav Katz told them that after two years of fighting Hamas still controls more than 60% of Gaza’s tunnel system, and the IDF has not yet succeeded in destroying it. 

The tunnels run on both sides of the so-called “yellow line,” with some extending into roughly 53% of the area where the IDF maintains a presence after the redeployment agreed under the cease-fire. Senior security sources say the IDF plans a systematic, phased demolition of all tunnels in territory under its control — a prolonged operation expected to take several months.

Those sources add that Hamas is using the cease-fire to accelerate rearmament in case negotiations to disarm it fail. The terrorist group has brought thousands of new recruits into the tunnel network for weapons training, resumed production of rockets and mortar warheads in underground workshops, and renewed manufacture of large explosive charges using ordnance left behind.