JERUSALEM/LONDON: Awaiting Israeli ground forces in Gaza is a Hamas web hundreds of kilometers long and up to 80 meters deep that one freed hostage and one expert described as a “spider web.” Security officials say it’s a network of tunnels. as “10 times more than the Viet Cong.”
According to Western and Middle Eastern sources familiar with the matter, the Palestinian Islamist group has a wide variety of attack, smuggling, storage and operational dens within its 360 square kilometers of sandy coastline and its borders. It is said to be running through a tunnel.
The United States believes Israeli special forces will face unprecedented challenges fighting Hamas militants while avoiding killing hostages held underground, US officials said.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin noted that Iraq’s nine-month battle to retake the city of Mosul from Daesh may have been easier than what awaited the Israelis. There are also booby traps and it’s a really tiring activity. ”
Hamas is still believed to have tunnels leading to the outside world, even though Israel has invested heavily in tunnel detection, including underground barriers equipped with sensors known as “iron walls.”
After the end of the last fighting of 2021, Yehya al-Shinwar, leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said: “They started saying that they destroyed 100 kilometers of Hamas tunnels. Let me tell you, there are over 500 kilometers of tunnels in the Gaza Strip. Even if their story was true, they destroyed 100 kilometers of tunnels. It’s only his 20 percent of the tunnel.”
hostage witness
There is still no corroboration of Mr. Sinwar’s comments, which are believed to be going underground ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive.
However, although the length of the blockaded coastal area is only 40 kilometers, estimates of several hundred kilometers are widely accepted among security analysts.
Israel has full control over Gaza’s air and sea access and 59 kilometers of its 72-kilometer land border (13 kilometers south of the border with Egypt), and tunnels are used by Hamas to transport weapons, equipment and personnel. This is one of the few methods.
The Palestinian Organization and other Palestinian groups are secretive about their networks, but recently freed Israeli hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, said: “It’s like a spider web, a lot of tunnels.” “We walked for miles underground,” he said, adding: “We walked for miles underground.” ”
Given Israel’s overwhelming military superiority in air power and armor, Hamas argues that the tunnels could be used in part by forcing Israeli soldiers to move underground in confined spaces that Hamas fighters are familiar with. I believe this is the way to cut it.
“I won’t go into detail about the number of kilometers of tunnels, but they are being built under schools and residential areas, and the number is huge,” an Israeli military spokesperson said on Thursday.
Urging the UN Security Council to intervene, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for an immediate end to the “invasion” of Gaza and said he wanted to move toward “political rather than military and security solutions.” There is.
underground city
Israeli security officials say heavy Israeli airstrikes have caused little damage to tunnel infrastructure and that Hamas’ naval special forces could launch maritime attacks targeting coastal areas near Gaza this week.
“We continue to carry out large-scale attacks day after day after day, but the[Hamas]leadership remains largely intact, retaining its command and control capabilities and even the ability to attempt a counterattack,” said former Brigadier General Amir. Abibi said. Senior positions in the Israeli military included deputy commander of the Gaza Strip, tasked with anti-tunnel operations.
“There are entire cities underground all over Gaza, 40 to 50 meters deep. There are bunkers, command centers, warehouses, and of course they are connected to over 1,000 rocket launch sites.”
According to other sources, the depth is estimated to be up to 80 meters.
One Western security official said: It is made of concrete and is very well made. Think of the Viet Cong era. They had a lot of money to work with over the years. ”
Another security source in one of Israel’s neighboring countries said Hamas tunnels from Egypt are still active.
“The supply chain is still intact. The network involved in facilitating the coordination also includes Egyptian military officers. It is unclear whether the Egyptian military was aware of this.”
A small number of narrow, deep smuggling tunnels operated between Egypt and Gaza until recently, but they have largely stopped since fighting between Israel and Hamas, according to two security officials and traders in the Egyptian city of El Arish. It is said that the speed has slowed to such an extent. The war has begun.
Egyptian authorities did not respond to requests for comment. On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said while inspecting military units in Suez that his military’s role is to protect Egypt’s borders.
long game
Hamas was founded in Gaza in 1987 and is believed to have begun digging tunnels in the mid-1990s, when Israel granted Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization some autonomy in Gaza.
The tunnel network is the main reason Hamas is stronger in Gaza than in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settlements, military bases and surveillance equipment in the West Bank make it difficult to bring anything in from Jordan.
Tunneling became easier when Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and Hamas came to power in the 2006 elections.
Shortly after, Hamas’ military wing, the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, captured Gilad Shalit and other Israeli soldiers after diving 600 meters to storm the Kerem Shalom base on the Gaza border. Killed 2 people.
A year later, Hamas used tunnels in the Gaza Strip to launch a military offensive against the forces of Arafat’s successor, PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Although military tunnels remained off-limits to outside eyes, Gaza smugglers at the time flaunted barely concealed commercial tunnels beneath the Rafah border.
These were approximately 3 feet (1 meter) wide and used winch motors to transport supplies along sandy tunnel floors in hollow gasoline barrels.
Abu Qusay, one of Rafah’s tunnel operators, said it would take three to six months to dig a half-mile tunnel and could generate profits of up to $100,000 a day. The most profitable item was bullets, which were bought for $1 each in Egypt and more than $6 in Gaza. He said the Kalashnikov rifle was sold for $800 in Egypt and was sold for twice that amount.
In 2007, the military is believed to have taken commander Mohammed Deif to Gaza through a tunnel from Egypt. Deif was the mastermind behind Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7, which left 1,400 people dead and hostages taken.
tunnel hunting
Professor Joel Roskin, a topographer and geologist at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, said it is difficult to accurately map tunnel networks from the surface or in space, and 3D mapping and image visualization add highly sensitive information. said that it is essential.
Among the elite units tasked with penetrating underground are Yahalom, a specialized special unit of Israel’s Combat Engineers known as the Weasels, who specialize in finding, clearing and destroying tunnels.
Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited fighters in Yahalom and said, “I’m counting on you. The people of Israel are counting on you, too.”
What awaits them is formidable, Israeli officials say, and they face an enemy that has regrouped and learned from past Israeli operations in 2014 and 2021.
“There will be a lot of booby traps. They have more lethal thermobaric weapons that we didn’t have in 2021. And they will try to attack our APCs (armored personnel carriers) and tanks. I think we’ve acquired a number of anti-tank weapon systems that will do that,” said Amnon Sofrin, a retired brigadier general and former commander of Combat Intelligence Command.
Sofrin, who also previously served as intelligence chief for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, said Hamas may also try to kidnap soldiers.
Daphne Richemon Barak, a professor at Israel’s Reichmann University and author of “The Underground War,” said the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have changed the situation.
“What the IDF (Israeli military) could face inside the tunnels is also all the experience and knowledge that has been gained by groups like Daesh (Islamic State) and passed on to Hamas.”