Israel is considering flooding Hamas’ underground network of tunnels in Gaza with ocean water as part of its plan to completely decimate the terrorist group that rules the Palestinian territory, according to a report.
The Israel Defense Forces assembled at least five bombs that could be used to draw water from the Mediterranean Sea to clear the tunnels within weeks, US officials told the Wall Street Journal.
The military completed the system, built about a mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp, in the middle of last month, according to the newspaper.
Each bomb has the power to move thousands of cubic meters of water per hour into at least 800 tunnels used by Hamas to pass through Gaza undetected.
Israel has not decided whether to deploy the bombs, which could threaten Gaza’s already scarce water supply and infrastructure, officials said.
It is also unclear whether the Jewish nation would flood the tunnels prior to the release or rescue of the remaining Israeli hostages, who are likely being held in the underground areas.
The IDF has not decided whether to go ahead with the plan to flood Hamas tunnels, but has not yet ruled it out. AP
U.S. officials who spoke to the WSJ said they did not know how close Israel was to making a decision, but noted that they are not ruling it out.
Several questions remain surrounding the feasibility and potential impact of such a plan, officials said.
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“We are not sure about the success of the pumping, as no one knows the details of the tunnels and the terrain around them,” a person familiar with the plan told the publication. “It’s impossible to know if that will be effective because we don’t know how seawater will drain into tunnels that no one has been in before.”
The saltwater flooding has the potential to negatively impact Gaza’s already very limited water supply as well as above-ground infrastructure. Via REUTERS
It is also unclear what effect seawater through the tunnels might have on Gaza’s very limited supply of clean water or on the infrastructure above the underground passages.
“It is difficult to say what effect seawater pumping will have on existing water and sewage infrastructure. It is difficult to say what effect it will have on groundwater reserves. And it is difficult to determine the impact on the stability of nearby buildings,” Jon Alterman, senior vice president of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the WSJ.
Gazans depend on three Israeli pipelines for drinking water, but the war has caused one of them to close and the other two to limit their operations.
Palestinians in the territory now receive only three liters of water a day, a fifth of the daily minimum recommended by the UN, the newspaper reported.
Flooding the tunnels could also contaminate the ground with hazardous materials from inside the tunnels, exacerbating the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the war.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn