2006 Gaza cross-border raid
The 2006 Gaza cross-border raid was an armed incursion carried out by seven or eight Gazan Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006 who attacked Israel Defense Forces (IDF) positions near the Kerem Shalom Crossing through an attack tunnel. In the attack, two IDF soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed, four IDF soldiers were wounded, one of whom was Gilad Shalit, who was captured and taken to the Gaza Strip.
Gilad Shalit on Hamas poster, Nablus 7 May 2007
After more than five years in Hamas captivity, IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was released and returned to Israel, while nearly a thousand Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners are being released in exchange, 18 October 2011.
Palestinian tunnel warfare in the Gaza Strip
A vast network of tunnels used for smuggling and warfare purposes exists under the Gaza Strip. The underground tunnel network allows Hamas and other militant groups to store and shield weapons, gather and move underground, communicate, train, launch offensive attacks, transport hostages, and retreat without being detected by Israeli or Egyptian authorities. This network of tunnels is colloquially referred to as the Gaza metro. According to General Hassan Hassanzadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces in Tehran, there are more than 500 kilometers of tunnels.
IDF soldier overlooking an uncovered tunnel in the Gaza Strip during Protective Edge
Photograph of a tunnel shaft in Gaza discovered in 2014
Palestinian tunnel that was uncovered on 10 December 2017, on Israeli side of the border between the kibbutzim of Kissufim and Nirim (but over 1 km from either community)