Netanyahu warns Gaza militants against tunnel attacks

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza on Sunday that his country will retaliate with “greater force” than deployed in the 2014 Gaza war if cross-border tunnels are used to attack Israel.

Hamas has built a sophisticated network of tunnels to infiltrate Israel in order to carry out attacks. Israelis living near Gaza have reported hearing tunneling sounds under their homes recently.

A senior Hamas leader boasted on Friday that Gaza militants dig tunnels and test rockets to attack Israel “every day.” Ismail Haniyeh said the tunnels are a “preparation” for war with Israel and boasted Hamas has “has built tunnels two times more than Vietnam tunnels.”

Earlier Sunday, a Palestinian opened fire at a West Bank checkpoint and wounded three soldiers before he was shot and killed by troops, the military said.

Palestinians identified the gunman as Amjad Sukkari, a 34-year-old policeman who worked as a bodyguard for the Palestinian attorney general.

Posts on his Facebook page from just hours before the attack read “your mourning will be victorious” and “there is nothing worth living for on this earth as long as the occupation strangles our breaths.”

Gaza’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers praised the shooting attack, the latest in four months of near-daily Palestinian assaults on Israeli civilians and soldiers.