Jerusalem (CNN) The Israeli military destroyed a tunnel in northern Gaza with an airstrike on Saturday night, according to Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.

The 1-kilometer tunnel was only meters away from the border fence near the Erez crossing into Israel and a short distance away from a kibbutz, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman.

This is the sixth tunnel destroyed in the past six months. Conricus said the tunnel took months to build and that the military had been tracking its construction for a number of weeks.

"Hamas is spreading messages of its desire for a long-term cease-fire but actually digs terror tunnels into the territory of the State of Israel," said Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Twitter. "We're not buying this bluff. We will continue, like this evening, to strike the terror infrastructure."

The destruction of the tunnel comes before what's expected to be a volatile week in Israel and the Palestinian territories. On Monday, the US will officially open its embassy in Jerusalem in a move that is expected to spark protests across the region. On Tuesday, Palestinians mark what they call the "Nakba" or Catastrophe, in memory of the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were either driven from, or fled, their homes during the Arab-Israeli war that accompanied the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. And the Muslim month of Ramadan also starts this week, which regularly brings a spike in tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

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