An IDF soldier at the entrance to a Hamas tunnel. An arrested Hamas operative has provided information about the Palestinian terror group’s tunnel-digging operations. Photo: Wikipedia.

JNS.org – An teenage Hamas operative arrested by Israeli security forces in April has provided the Shin Bet security agency with extensive information about the Palestinian terror group’s tunnel-digging operations, the Shin Bet revealed Tuesday.

Israel’s Southern District Attorney’s Office filed its indictment against the minor, a teenage boy whose identity has been placed under a gag order, with the Beersheba District Court on Tuesday. He faces various charges, including affiliation with an illegal organization, conspiracy to commit a violent crime, arms offenses, and security offenses.

According to the Shin Bet, the boy was arrested April 6 after crossing the Israel-Gaza border fence. His interrogation revealed that he was a member of a Hamas battalion based in northern Gaza, to which he was recruited in 2014, shortly before Operation Protective Edge. He told the Shin Bet that Hamas’s “military wing,” the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, put him through training in which he participated in surveillance and ambushes against Israeli military troops. He further revealed that his training involved infiltrations, offensive missions, and detonating explosives. Hamas, according to the teenager, believes its next conflict with Israel will take place on Israeli soil rather than in Gaza.

The Shin Bet said the interrogation also provided intelligence about the Hamas’s tunnel-digging methods and operating procedures. The boy confessed to taking part in planting explosives in and around tunnels in case Israeli troops locate and enter the tunnels.

Hamas is forging ahead with its cross-border attack tunnel enterprise while the terror group is fully aware of the IDF’s efforts to uncover and destroy the underground passageways, the boy reportedly told interrogators.

“The boy is just one of many Hamas operatives who are currently being interrogated by the Shin Bet and providing it with inside information about Hamas’s comprehensive tunnel operations,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.