TEL AVIV, November 8. /TASS/. In the course of Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces destroyed 130 shafts leading to tunnels used by Palestine’s radical movement HAMAS, the IDF press service said on Wednesday.

"Combat engineers fighting in Gaza are destroying the enemy's weapons and are locating, exposing and detonating tunnel shafts. With the expansion of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, the soldiers are thwarting Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure," the IDF press service said in a statement. "As part of the ground forces' activity in the Gaza Strip, IDF soldiers are currently working to expose and destroy Hamas’ tunnels. Since the beginning of the fighting, 130 tunnel shafts have been destroyed."

Apart from that, the Israeli military is destroying underground command centers of Hamas.

"The enemy's preparation for a prolonged stay in the tunnels can be seen based on water and oxygen means found in the tunnels," the Israeli military said.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.