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Israel has said it is attacking the secret underground tunnels used by Hamas, while on the other hand it is continuing its revenge attacks on the militant group.
"Imagine a two-layer mess; a layer of civilians and a layer of Hamas. We are trying to go to the second layer that Hamas has built," said a spokesman for the Israeli military.
There are two types of caves. Some of them come through for supplies, and they start from the Egyptian side and enter Gaza, while others leave Gaza and enter Israeli areas near the border, and Hamas uses them to launch attacks.
It is difficult to estimate the size of the network that Israel calls 'Qasa Metro' because it is believed to be 41 km long and 10 km wide.
After the 2021 war, the Israeli military said they destroyed more than 100 km of trenches in airstrikes.
Hamas says that only 5% of the 500 KM holes were damaged. To put it in perspective, the London Underground is 400 km long, and most of that distance is above ground.
Cave constructions began in Gaza before Israel withdrew its troops in 2005. But they continued to grow when Hamas took control of the corridor two years later.
As a result, Israel and Egypt have severely restricted the movement of goods and people entering and leaving for security reasons.
When the tunnels were at their peak, they reached around 2,500 tunnels, which were used to bring in commercial goods, fuel and weapons, and were used by Hamas and other groups.
Smuggling has become less important in Gaza since 2010, when Israel began to allow more goods to be smuggled across the border. Egypt later closed it by using powerful water to open it and direct destruction.
In 2006, militants used a tunnel under the Israeli border and killed two soldiers, taking Gilad Shalit hostage and holding them for five years.
In 2013, the Israeli military discovered a cave 1.6 km long and 18 meters deep with a concrete roof and walls. He was coming out of the Gaza Strip and was reaching the fields on the Israeli side. It was reported when the local people heard an unusual sound coming from the cave.
Most of the caves inside Qasa are believed to be 30 meters deep, and have entrances below houses, mosques, schools and other public buildings, and were built to keep the militants out.
The cost of building a cave is said to come from the local people. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of diverting millions of dollars in Gaza money to pay for the tunnels, and tens of thousands of tons of cement intended to rebuild the houses destroyed in previous wars.
It is widely believed that those holes on the border were used by Hamas when they attacked Israel on Saturday.
