Israel Struggles to Eradicate Hamas's Tunnel Network

"As much as 80% of Hamas's vast warren of tunnels under Gaza remains intact after weeks of Israeli efforts to destroy them, U.S. and Israeli officials said, hampering Israel's central war aims.

Thwarting Hamas's ability to use tunnels is the keystone to Israel's effort to capture top Hamas leaders and rescue the remaining Israeli hostages, Israeli officials have said. And Israel has said it has conducted strikes on hospitals and other key infrastructure in its pursuit of the tunnels.

Disabling the tunnels, which run for more than 300 miles under the narrow strip -- or roughly half the New York City subway system -- would deny Hamas relatively safe storage for weapons and ammunition, a hiding place for fighters, command-and-control centers for its leadership, and the ability to maneuver around the territory unexposed to Israeli fire, Israel has said.

Israel has sought various methods to clear the tunnels, including installing pumps to flood them with water from the Mediterranean, destroying them with airstrikes and liquid explosives, searching them with dogs and robots, destroying their entrances and raiding them with highly trained soldiers.

More than 25,000 people, the majority women and children, have been killed in Gaza since the start of hostilities, Palestinian authorities said. Those figures don't distinguish between combatants and civilians.

U.S. and Israeli officials have had difficulty precisely assessing the level of destruction of the tunnels, in part because they can't say for certain how many miles of tunnels exist. The officials from both countries estimate 20% to 40% of the tunnels have been damaged or rendered inoperable, U.S. officials said, much of that in northern Gaza.

Israel is "thoroughly and gradually dismantling the tunnel network," the Israel Defense Forces said. The White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.

Late last year, in an operation called "Sea of Atlantis," Israel installed a series of pumps in northern Gaza, despite concerns about the potential impact of pumping seawater on the territory's freshwater supply and aboveground infrastructure. Israel's bombing of the tunnels has inflicted widespread destruction to buildings on the surface.

This month, Israel installed at least one pump in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to disrupt the tunnel network there, a U.S. official familiar with the effort said. The first pumps installed within Gaza used water from the Mediterranean Sea, while the latest pump draws water from Israel, the official said." [1]

1. World News: Israel Struggles to Eradicate Hamas's Tunnel Network. Youssef, Nancy A; Malsin, Jared.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 29 Jan 2024: A.6.