The Israeli navy stated on Tuesday it had begun pumping water into the huge community of tunnels underneath Gaza, which Hamas has used to launch assaults, retailer weapons and imprison Israeli hostages.
The military “deployed new capabilities to neutralize the underground terrorist infrastructure within the Gaza Strip by channeling giant volumes of water into the tunnels,” the Israeli navy stated in an announcement.
The assertion was the primary public acknowledgment by the navy that its engineers had flooded the tunnels, a controversial technique that some navy officers have stated is ineffective and that the UN has warned may harm consuming water and techniques of Gaza sewerage.
Even earlier than the warfare started in October, Israeli navy officers had warned that the Hamas tunnels posed a serious menace. Within the months since Israel launched its floor offensive and started uncovering the underground community, navy spokesmen have expressed shock on the size, depth and high quality of the tunnels. Some sections of the community are large enough to drive a truck by way of.
Elsewhere, the navy found underground chambers through which they are saying a few of the 240 hostages taken in Gaza after the Hamas-led assault on October 7 had been being held.
Senior Israeli protection officers, who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate intelligence issues, estimated this month that the underground community is between 350 and 450 miles lengthy — extraordinary figures for a territory that at its longest level it is just 25 miles. Two of the officers stated there are shut to five,700 separate shafts resulting in the tunnels.
In December, after studies that the military had begun to expertise the flooding of some tunnels in northern Gaza, a UN official in Gaza warned in opposition to it.
“It should trigger extreme harm to the already fragile water and sewage infrastructure that’s in Gaza,” stated Lynn Hastings, then the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.
In its assertion on Tuesday, the military stated it selected tunnels for flooding after “an evaluation of the traits of the land and water techniques within the space to make sure that harm just isn’t completed to the underground water of the realm”.
The military started experimenting with flood tunnels solely after the warfare started, in keeping with three navy officers with information of the trouble, which was referred to as Atlantis. The purpose was by no means to drown the Hamas fighters taking refuge within the underground community, however relatively to drive them out, the officers stated.
Total, nonetheless, the undertaking has had restricted success, officers added. Regardless of the massive volumes of water being pumped, lots of the tunnels are porous, leading to seepage into the encircling soil relatively than a deluge by way of the passages.
