First publication this morning on the IDF airwaves:

New revelations about the infiltration of the terrorist cell into the barrier area in the south of the Gaza Strip reveal the failure of the Gaza Division that allowed the terrorists to reach the area defined as Israeli territory:

The tunnel shaft through which the terrorists reached 200 meters from the border is a shaft that is connected to a tunnel that has been known to Israel for 10 years, since Operation Protective Edge.

The tunnel, which came close to our territory, has not been taken care of since the beginning of the war, even though during the last 8 months the IDF has been operating in the "buffer zone", the strip that is hundreds of meters to a kilometer wide, along the entire border of the Strip, and there the IDF takes care of the above and below ground infrastructure and destroys tunnels Approaches like this exactly.
The IDF did not thoroughly investigate the route of the tunnel, and did not act to destroy its branches that approach the fence - and thus the terrorist squad was able to use the same tunnel to reach up to 200 meters from the border.

And if that's not enough - when the terrorists reached the first fence, the old "Hoovers" fence, they passed through an opening in the fence that remained breached.

This is an opening in the fence intended for the movement of IDF forces, which remained open, and thus the terrorists found an easy loophole to approach Israeli territory through it - without even having to cut the fence or climb over it.
If the opening was closed - this would at the very least hinder the cell from penetrating into Israel, and also make it possible to understand its exact location.

Security officials are harshly criticizing the Gaza Division, saying that this is an event that could have been prevented - both through earlier treatment of the approach tunnel that has been known since 2014, and also by being careful to close openings in the fence.

An IDF spokesman said that the incident is being investigated, and no direct reference to the details was given.