The Israeli army on Tuesday made effective use of technological advances to find and destroy a terror tunnel running under the border with Hamas-ruled Gaza.

At least seven members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were killed in the tunnel when it collapsed.

The tunnel was already relatively deep into Israel's sovereign territory, and was believed to be heading toward the nearby town of Kissufim.

The Islamic Jihad has threatened retaliation for what it called an "act of aggression," ignoring entirely that it was digging the tunnel in order to murder Israeli Jews.

Israel is taking the threat seriously, and has deployed additional Iron Dome units to the area in case of a retaliatory rocket attack.

There was some backlash in Israel after an IDF spokesperson appeared to apologize for the fact that Islamic Jihad members had been killed in the operation.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on Twitter: "It is forbidden to apologize for successfully destroying terrorists. Let’s be clear – these were terrorists involved in digging an attack tunnel inside Israeli territory with which they intended to kill Israeli women and children."

Senior IDF officials later insisted that the earlier remark had been taken out of context, and that the army harbored "no regrets" over killing the terrorists, accidentally or otherwise.

PHOTO: Terror tunnel (David Buimovitch / Flash90)