Since October 7, the Israeli military claims to have found about 1,500 tunnel shafts in Gaza

The Israeli military asserted on Tuesday that since it began its military operation in Gaza in response to the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, it has discovered about 1,500 tunnel shafts and underground passages in the region.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the tunnel shafts belonged to Hamas and that many of them were situated inside and near residential areas.

"The 'Shaldag' Special Forces Unit are conducting operational activities within the Hamas terrorist organization subterranean tunnel network," the IDF said, "having located hundreds of tunnels and destroyed many of them using various techniques."

Hamas command and control centers are located in the tunnels beneath Gaza, which are also used for rocket and ammunition cache storage, smuggling goods from Egypt, and launching attacks into Israel.

Described as "the biggest Hamas tunnel," the IDF announced on Sunday that it had discovered the four-kilometer (2.5-mile) tunnel in Gaza.

It's unclear if Hamas' 2021 claim that it had excavated 500 kilometers (311 miles) of tunnel beneath Gaza was real or just posturing.