Israel starts flooding Hamas underground tunnels with seawater
This threatens Gaza with an environmental disaster
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has begun flooding the underground tunnels of the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The water is supplied to the militants' extensive network of shelters using five large pumps that were installed in mid-November, one and a half kilometers north of the Al-Shati refugee camp. Each of them pumps thousands of cubic meters of water into the tunnels per hour, straight from the Mediterranean Sea.
A video of this was published by the Voice of Israel telegram channel. It also recorded the last minutes of the life of a Hamas militant who drowned in the flooded tunnel.
The entire process of flooding could take a week, according to a Wall Street Journal source among U.S. officials. According to him, Israel informed the United States of the possibility of such a decision in early November.
However, the effectiveness of the approach remains in question, as the exact characteristics of the tunnels and the soil around them are unknown, the WSJ source said.
Some U.S. officials are concerned that this will jeopardize water supply and sewerage in the Gaza Strip. It is also unclear how this will affect groundwater, as there is a possibility that flooding will release hazardous substances in the tunnels into the soil.
As a result, this could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the enclave and put U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration in a difficult situation due to worldwide condemnation. At the same time, Hamas militants will be able to easily leave the shelters during the time they are filled with water.
Hamas uses a large network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip to move between buildings and hide hostages unnoticed. According to the Israeli army, the militants have built 800 tunnels in total. Hamas claimed that their total length is 500 km. Some of the tunnels are made of reinforced concrete and are equipped with communication networks and power lines.
The tunnels give the militants an advantage in the war with Israel, in particular, they prevent the use of tanks and helicopters, the New York Times wrote. For example, upon learning of the enemy's approach, militants can detonate explosives at the entrance to the tunnel and collapse the passage.
The Hamas tunnels are constructed under one of the most densely populated areas in the world – about 2 million people in the Gaza Strip live on an area of about 230 square kilometers. This complicates the actions of Israel, which cannot blow up the tunnels, as the buildings standing on the surface could fall into the crater and "turn into mass graves," explained Eyal Weizman, director of the Forensic Architecture research group.
Background. As reported, Israel is preparing to create a buffer zone in Gaza. The main goal is to prevent Hamas from gathering its forces near the border and taking Israel by surprise again.
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