The existence of the massive terror tunnel near the Erez Crossing that was revealed by the IDF earlier this week has been known by senior Israeli security and political officials for at least four years, Yediot Achranot reported on Thursday. According to the report, senior defense officials say that the IDF has been aware of the location of the tunnel for years, but not its exact route, adding that it is likely there are dozens more such tunnels near the fence that have not yet been discovered. Senior political officials confirmed that they were informed about the vast tunnel and that they participated in extensive discussions about Hamas’s tunnel infrastructure in recent years. However, senior political officials made a decision not to carry out an attack on the Gaza Strip to thwart the construction of the tunnel system. One of the former members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said that he participated in many discussions about the tunnels and the committee was presented with much information regarding them, including the giant tunnel only 400 meters from the Eretz Crossing. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)