Last summer’s Gaza war left Hamas “deterred and restrained,” according to an IDF officer. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip last summer has “left Hamas deterred and restrained, and has created potential calm for years to come,” a senior Israel Defense Forces Southern Command officer said Tuesday, Israel Hayom reported.

The officer, referring to Operation Protective Edge’s dismantling of Hamas’s network of terror tunnels running under the Israel-Gaza border, said the Palestinian terrorist group “has been unable to make use of the tunnels we destroyed” despite its efforts to rebuild them.

Meanwhile, as part of the operational lessons learned from last summer’s Gaza conflict, the IDF is striving to improve its own tunnel warfare abilities. A new tunnel discovery system is slated to become operational in the next few weeks, and the IDF is developing new technology to counter underground threats. The IDF officer said those initiatives still require budget appropriations.