Israeli soldiers are securing a tunnel under Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip on the 22nd of last month (local time). The Israeli military additionally revealed the Hamas underground tunnel discovered at Al-Shifa Hospital on this day. /Reuters Yonhap News
It has been confirmed that the Israeli military has begun pumping seawater from the nearby Mediterranean Sea into a large network of tunnels underground in the Gaza Strip.
The U.S. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) quoted a senior U.S. government official on the 12th (local time) as saying, “The Israeli military installed a total of five seawater pumps in the coastal zone last month, and recently installed two additional pumps and launched a tunnel flooding operation. has begun,” the report reported. The official did not specify when exactly the operation began. However, he said, “An initial test of the effectiveness of this operation has been conducted,” indicating that the Israeli military had launched the operation at least a few days ago. The Israeli Ministry of Defense refused to confirm the matter, saying it was “confidential.”
Earlier, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzy Halevi told Israeli media on the 5th, “There is also a way to use seawater to destroy Hamas’ tunnels.” Then, on the 6th, a photo of the Israeli military working on pipe installation on the Mediterranean coast was released, leading to speculation that the Israeli military’s water attack was imminent. In Khan Yunis, the largest city in southern Gaza, leaflets were distributed quoting the Qur’anic verse, ‘The flood came upon them as if they were criminals.’ It was presumed to be psychological warfare against Hamas members hiding in underground tunnels.
WSJ predicted that “the process of filling all of Hamas’ tunnels with seawater will take several weeks or more.” This is because the tunnel is so large that its total length is estimated to be over 500 km. Hamas has built an extensive network of tunnels in northern and southern Gaza over a period of 15 years, starting in 2007. The tunnel is currently being used by Hamas leaders and armed members to move freely throughout Gaza while avoiding Israeli airstrikes. It is also used to conceal weapons and supplies and to detain hostages.
The complete destruction of Hamas’ tunnel network is Israel’s core goal, along with ‘elimination of the entire leadership’. During the ground battle in Gaza so far, the Israeli military has discovered a total of 800 entrances to Hamas tunnels and destroyed about 500 of them. However, due to the numerous traps and explosives, it has been impossible to thoroughly explore and destroy the inside of the tunnel. Accordingly, alternatives to destroying tunnels without deploying troops have been sought. Methods include large-scale bunker buster bomb strikes, injection of liquid sponge bombs, and destruction by deploying robots or small unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).
WSJ said, “One of these methods is handmade using seawater,” and added, “This is the method that Egypt used when it destroyed the tunnels of Palestinian smugglers in 2015.” However, environmental experts and some in the international community are concerned that “it could contaminate the underground fresh water layer in the Gaza Strip, making groundwater no longer usable.” In the past, when Egypt crossed the Rafah border and filled the tunnel connecting Gaza and Egypt with seawater, all crops in the nearby farmland within a few kilometers withered and died.
Despite these concerns, the Israeli military is taking the stance that it will mobilize all possible methods, saying, “To root out Hamas, we must destroy the tunnel network.” The Israeli daily Jerusalem Post quoted military experts as saying, “Israel currently controls about half of the Gaza Strip, but it will continue to suffer from the threat of attacks from Hamas unless it can destroy underground facilities.”
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2023-12-13 19:14:00
