Israel has apparently begun flooding Hamas tunnels under the Gaza Strip as a test. The extensive system not only serves as a hiding place for the terrorists, but also for smuggling weapons, money and food.
According to Israeli and US media reports, Israel’s military has begun flooding tunnels belonging to the radical Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip with seawater. The aim was to destroy the underground network of passages and hiding places and drive Hamas fighters to the surface. However, these are initial tests, reported the “Times of Israel”.
Politicians are protesting against flooding because they suspect hostages have been kidnapped by Hamas in the tunnels. US President Joe Biden said there were reports that “there are no hostages in these tunnels. But I don’t know for sure.” Experts believe that at least some of Hamas’ remaining 135 prisoners are in the corridors.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, fear that the flooding will have long-term effects on groundwater in the Gaza Strip. Because dangerous substances that Hamas stores in its hideouts could seep into the ground. In addition, effects on the statics of foundations and buildings are to be expected.
It would not be the first time …
It would not be the first time that the tunnels have been flooded: in 2015, the Egyptian military flooded several tunnels that led from the Gaza Strip to the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula in order to prevent smuggling.
Last week, the Israeli military said that soldiers had discovered more than 800 tunnel shafts in the Gaza Strip since the ground invasion began in late October. Of these, around 500 were destroyed.
An army spokesman once described the tunnel network under the Gaza Strip, which is around 45 kilometers long and around six to 14 kilometers wide, as a “metro”. Some of the tunnels would connect strategic Hamas facilities underground. According to the military, the shafts are located in residential areas, next to schools and kindergartens.
“Nobody knows how long the route is”
The system is estimated to be around 500 kilometers long. Daphne Richemond-Barak, an expert in underground warfare at Reichman University in Tel Aviv, recently told the New York Times that no one knows how long the route actually is. Military expert Harel Chorev from Tel Aviv University told CNN that he believes Hamas is “exaggerating a little” with the 500 kilometers because it wants to “deter Israel from invading.”
However, experts agree on a few points: some of the tunnels are made of concrete or are supplied with electricity. On average they are two meters high and one meter wide, but some are also large enough for vehicles. Some reach dozens of meters underground. Their entrances should be in residential buildings or mosques. According to Israeli intelligence services, Hamas also operated a command and control center under Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Tariffs are said to have brought Hamas millions
Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas has continued to expand the tunnel network. Weapons are said to have been brought into the area through the shafts. It is said that people can also cross the border irregularly, such as high-ranking Hamas officials, foreign military advisors or couriers with suitcases of money. Food, consumer goods, cars and fuel also enter the Gaza Strip through the tunnels. Even a lion for the zoo is said to have been smuggled into the area in this way.
According to residents, Hamas charges tariffs on all goods and finances itself this way. The business is said to have brought the terrorist militia millions in annual income.
Last but not least, the tunnels offer terrorists protection from attacks. But they also use them to appear out of nowhere and attack from behind. An 85-year-old woman released from Gaza on October 23 described the system she had to navigate during the hostage crisis as a “spider’s web.”