Hundreds of miles of tunnels remain in Gaza: Israel consul general

The Gaza strip is still home to “hundreds of miles” of Hamas terror tunnels — and it could take years to eliminate them and vanquish the terrorist organization, Israel’s consul-general revealed to The Post.“It will take time,” Ofir Akunis said during a sitdown this week.“We can stop [the war] after Hamas is not there — maybe it will take another year or two years.”“It took six years, six years for the Western world, to defeat Germany,’ Akunis noted.Despite 15 months of intense bombing before a ceasefire negotiated by President Trump last month, Hamas staged a military parade to mark the temporary cessation of hostilities and has moved to swiftly reassert control over Gaza in recent weeks.

On Saturday the terror group released three more Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails — extending the fragile ceasefire.Should hostilities resume, the war would “look different” than the last 15 months of fighting, Akunis said, declining to elaborate.Akunis steadfastly refused to attack President Biden by name but he could not resist a smile when asked to compare the two American leaders’ approaches to the powder-keg region.“I think that now the there is a new attitude in the American administration,” he said.Both Israel’s invasion of Rafah and control of the Philadelphi Corridor dividing Gaza and Egypt were vociferously opposed by the Biden administration.This time around he had “no doubt” about total American support for whatever was necessary to root out the terrorist threat, he said.

“I don’t think that anyone will say to the Israeli government not to, let’s say, act in Rafah as an example or about the Philadelphi Corridor.”Many Democrats and Arab nations in the region continue to hold out hope for a two-state solution, President Trump has largely dashed that hope with a new proposal that would allow the United States to take over Gaza and the Palestinian population there to be relocated.Akun...