Tel Aviv, 17 January 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The Israeli military said on Tuesday evening it had found and destroyed a strategic Hamas tunnel in Gaza that stretched for several hundred metres.

It ran at a depth of nine metres under the Wadi Gaza, the riverbed that separates northern and southern Gaza.

Fighters with Palestinian militant group Hamas used the tunnel to move undetected across the coastal strip, the statement added.

Israeli soldiers had already taken up positions along the Wadi Gaza weeks ago in order to prevent Hamas fighters from travelling above ground between the two parts of the territory.

The extensive labyrinth of tunnels built by Hamas - known colloquially as the "Gaza Metro" - poses an enormous challenge for the Israeli armed forces.

Since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, which left 1,200 dead, the Israeli military has been trying to destroy the group and its infrastructure.

Israel estimates the tunnels run for hundreds of kilometres through the small and densly populated Gaza Strip.

Most of the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas are believed to be in the tunnels. It is also thought that the head of Hamas in Gaza, Yehya al-Sinwar, and his top commanders are hiding in the tunnels further south of Wadi Gaza in the area of Khan Younis.

An agreement brokered by Qatar between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip will receive medication.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the medicines purchased in France will initially to be flown to Egypt on board two Qatari military aircraft on Wednesday. From there they would be transported to the Gaza Strip.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu conveys his appreciation to all those who have assisted in the endeavor," said Netanyahu's office in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The European Union said on Tuesday it had placed al-Sinwar on its terrorism list. The EU classified Hamas, which violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, as a terrorist group in 2001.

Dozens of members of Palestinian terrorist organizations were killed in an army operation in Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said earlier Tuesday.

Soldiers also discovered around 100 rocket launchers and 60 rockets ready for use, the army said.

Hamas and other extremist groups still fire rockets towards Israel from time to time. A number of rockets were fired out of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

It was the heaviest rocket attack for several weeks, reported the Times of Israel. There were no reports of casualties.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, more than 24,000 people have been killed and more than 60,000 injured since October 7.

In view of the high number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the sealed-off coastal area, Israel has come under increasing international criticism.

On Tuesday evening, Israeli police violently dispersed a small rally of opponents of the Gaza war in the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

Police officers snatched signs reading "Stop the massacre!" from the demonstrators, Israeli media reported.

In principle, demonstrations against the war are not prohibited in Israel.

However, when they intervened against the protest in Tel Aviv, the police are said to have cited the fact that the demonstrators "hurt the public’s feelings."