During last month’s war with Hamas, the IDF destroyed some 60 miles of tunnels, part of a subterranean network created by the terrorist group to move troops and weapons around Gaza without exposing them to attack. In 2018, Qanta Ahmed visited one of these tunnels that had been captured by Israel. She recalls:

The word “tunnel” conjures up an idea of something small and dirty. But when I explored these tunnels in Gaza with the IDF in 2018 during a guided tour, the reality was rather different. I entered wearing a tailored white jacket and emerged completely spotless.

It was not a ramshackle trench, as I had expected. Far from it. Ventilation ensured the air in the tunnel was fresh. There was electrical wiring and concrete finishing. They are well-illuminated and carefully engineered. I was also shown the exit of the tunnel, which led directly to an Israeli farmer’s field meters away from a kindergarten. These tunnels are not built by amateurs but by a dedicated war machine obsessed by its hatred of Israel.

The structure of the tunnels, which run at least 30 feet below ground, is also far more complex than many realize. Satellite images from the tour (which I undertook at my own expense) made the sophisticated complexity of the London Underground and the New York subway system look like child’s play. Hamas’s tunnel network looks more like a lattice of intricate crochet.

Needless to say, Hamas upgraded and expanded the tunnel network between Ahmed’s visit and 2021.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.