Watchdog: Tunnels caught Israel off guard in 2014 Gaza war

JERUSALEM — Israel’s official government watchdog issued a long-awaited report Tuesday in which it found the military was ill-prepared to counter the threat of underground tunnels used by Hamas militants from Gaza during the 2014 war, and that the Cabinet was not provided enough information to make proper decisions about it.

While the report added to a growing list of political headaches for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it did not appear to pose any immediate threat to him.

The comptroller also found that Netanyahu considered the tunnels to be a “strategic threat” but did not convey this to the rest of the decision-making Security Cabinet.

The war was the culmination of a chain of events in the summer of 2014 that began when Hamas militants kidnapped three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.