Having already invented, developed and enhanced technology capable of shooting down rockets in flight, Israel is now close to developing technology to locate and identify tunnels dug deep underground with precision that will make it possible to bomb them from the air or neutralize them using other means. It is a breakthrough technology, and Israel has invested billions in it over the past decade. Its purpose is to prevent Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip from having the kind of underground reach that became a tangible threat to Israel during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.

Until now, all efforts have failed. This included experiments with underground sensors of various sorts. They were incapable of distinguishing between normal rumblings underground or the movement of heavy machinery and tractors and the actual digging of tunnels dozens of feet underground. Israel seems to have cracked that problem now. The new technology received operational confirmation Oct. 30 when 19 Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas activists in Gaza were killed, according to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) estimates, when an Islamic Jihad tunnel was bombed. The tunnel had already penetrated Israeli territory and threatened to become a terrorist tunnel.

The tunnel was first identified several weeks ago, and Israel watched tensely as it developed. Since it crossed into Israeli territory and violated Israeli sovereignty, Israel decided to destroy it. What Israel did not know was that excavators were in the tunnel at the time of the assault. They were killed by the blast. Another thing Israel did not anticipate was that to extricate their corpses, a special force, including a brigade commander in the Islamic Jihad movement and his deputy, were sent into the tunnel. They were also killed there, apparently suffocating on gases that were released during the bombing. The incident increased tensions along the southern sector and threatened to disturb the calm that has prevailed there since the end of the traumatic summer of 2014, which left Gaza in ruins and Israel licking its wounds. As of the writing of this article, silence has been maintained. None of the parties are lashing out, despite the casualties from Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Ever since the tunnel was destroyed, senior Egyptian intelligence officials have set off on a long round of mediation between the parties in an effort to prevent a conflagration from erupting. Both sides are well-aware that the previous round of violence, in 2014, was not planned. Rather, it was the result of a deteriorating situation and the loss of control on both sides. Neither of the parties needs another round of violence like that right now. The IDF has clarified that it did not know that there were excavators or fighters in the tunnel at the time, and that it did not plan to launch a "targeted killing." It simply wanted to destroy the tunnel. The Egyptians have made it clear to the Gazans that the use of force in response to the Israeli action would result in an even more forceful Israeli response, upon which Cairo would immediately wash its hands of any responsibility for what happens next. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also joined the chorus calling for calm. A ceremony was planned for the day after the bombing of the tunnel to mark the transfer of control over the border crossings into Gaza from Hamas to the Palestinian president (as part of the Palestinian reconciliation agreement). No one wanted to ruin the moment, so the calm has been maintained, at least for now.