Israel’s impending ground invasion of Gaza will have to pass through a 300-mile underground tunnel system operated by the Hamas terrorist group, experts warn.
The 300,000 troops prepared to enter rebel territory will face booby traps and guerrilla warfare in the elaborate series of corridors, which constitute one of Hamas’s most dangerous assets in the war, said Colin P. Clarke, a conflict and terrorism in Soufan. Group, he told iNews.
“When it comes to an underground network of tunnels, it becomes extremely complex,” the expert warned. “Hamas will have been preparing for an intervention by the Israel Defense Forces. [IDF] ground assault and see these tunnels inside out.
“Some of them are probably booby-trapped,” Clarke added. “Preparing to fight in such terrain is incredibly difficult and would require extensive intelligence about what the tunnel network is like, something the Israelis may not have.”
Israel had destroyed more than 62 miles of tunnels in 2021, but Hamas has repeatedly invested in the tunnel system, allegedly diverting millions of dollars in aid intended for the Palestinian people to do so.
Hamas is in control of a 300-mile tunnel system beneath Gaza that it can use to fight the IDF. Getty Images Part of the tunnel system connects to Egypt to allow Gaza to avoid Israel’s blockade.Getty Images
The tunnel system has previously been used to stage attacks against the Jewish state and has countless entrances and exits into schools and civilian buildings, areas that can serve as blind spots for Israel.
Parts of the tunnels can also be up to 130 feet deep, allowing members of the terrorist group to quickly find shelter from airstrikes.
Bruce Hoffman, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, echoed the dangers posed by the tunnels, noting that they are already the likely location of the more than 100 hostages Hamas has captured.
“These locations and perhaps even the hostages themselves are likely to be full of traps,” Hoffman warned in a sobering briefing on Monday. “This is a challenge of a magnitude that has never been faced before.”
An Israeli officer walking through part of a captured tunnel system in 2014.UPI The tunnels can reach a depth of up to 130 feet, allowing Hamas to avoid Israeli airstrikes. AP
Clarke noted that Israel should be able to mitigate some of the risks by sending drones and unmanned vehicles into the tunnels to map them and set traps, but the effectiveness of these methods remains unknown.
Alexander Grinberg of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security said that while the tunnels are ideal for Hamas to engage in a guerrilla war, they could also be used against terrorists.
“When tunnels are found, they can be closed to enclose the people inside,” Grinberg told France24, making it easier for the IDF to eliminate trapped enemy units.
The entrances to the tunnel may be located in civilian buildings, complicating the planned IDF assault. REUTERS The IDF destroyed around 62 miles of the tunnel system in 2021. IDF
The vast tunnels that run beneath Gaza were not originally used for terrorist acts. Their existence was first reported in 2006, when they were used as a means to circumvent an Israeli blockade imposed when Hamas came to power and smuggle food and essential items to the 2 million Palestinians living in the territory.
However, Hamas soon took control of the tunnels for its own military purposes and has steadily expanded them over the years.
Hamas leaders have described the tunnels as an “innovation” but insisted they are primarily for defensive purposes, the Washington Post reported.
According to the newspaper, the IDF has previously taken journalists on tours of tunnels they have captured, showing them as sophisticated structures with concrete walls, electricity and cars.
Israeli troops are being sent to control the Gaza border in preparation for an invasion of Palestinian territory. REUTERS An Israeli soldier shows the entrance to a small tunnel near the Gaza Strip operated by Hamas.Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously warned that the tunnels would be used to house kidnapped Israeli civilians, a fear that finally came true following Saturday’s massacre of more than 1,000 people in the Jewish state.
Netanyahu has now said his nation has no choice but to invade Gaza, a large-scale military action not seen since 2014.
In addition to weighing in on the military tactics of the war, Hoffman issued a stern warning about the loss of civilian life.
“No one knows how this crisis will end, but the shedding of more innocent blood – Israelis, Palestinians, and indeed non-combatant citizens of other countries – is certain,” he wrote.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn