Isreal walking into a trap of “a spider’s web” of Hamas tunnel city beneath Gaza; experts
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Hamas tunnels (80 metres deep) and traps delaying launch of a full ground offensive on Gaza by Israel forces
Hamas tunnels (80 metres deep) and traps delaying launch of a full ground offensive on Gaza by Israel forces.
Security sources claim that hundreds of kilometers long and up to 80 meters deep Hamas tunnel network—dubbed “a spider’s web” by one liberated hostage and the “Viet Cong times ten” by an expert—is what awaits Israeli ground forces in Gaza according to Reuters report.
According to Western and Middle Eastern sources acquainted with the situation, the Palestinian Islamist group has various types of tunnels flowing beneath the sandy 360 square km coastal strip and its boundaries, including attack, smuggling, storage, and operating burrows.
The United States believes Israel’s special forces will face an unprecedented challenge having to battle Hamas militants while trying to avoid killing hostages held below ground, a U.S. official said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted that Iraq’s nine-month-long battle to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State might prove to have been easier than what awaits the Israelis – likely to be “a lot of IEDs (improvised explosive devices), a lot of booby traps, and just a really grinding activity”.
Even though Israel has invested heavily in tunnel detection – including a sensor-equipped underground barrier it called an “iron wall” – Hamas is still thought to have working tunnels to the outside world.
After the last round of hostilities in 2021, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yehya Al-Sinwar, said: “They started saying they destroyed 100kms of Hamas tunnels. I am telling you, the tunnels we have in the Gaza Strip exceed 500kms. Even if their narrative is true, they only destroyed 20% of the tunnels.”
With Israel in full control of Gaza’s air and sea access and 59km of its 72km land borders – with Egypt 13km to the south – tunnels provide one of the few ways for Hamas to bring in weapons, equipment and people.
While it and other Palestinian groups are secretive about their networks, recently released Israeli hostage, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, said: “It looked like a spider’s web, many, many tunnels,” adding: “We walked kilometres under the ground.”
Hamas believes that with Israel’s overwhelming aerial and armoured military superiority, tunnels are a way to cut some of those advantages by forcing Israel’s soldiers to move underground in cramped spaces the Hamas fighters know well.
An Israeli military spokesperson said on Thursday: “I won’t elaborate on the number of kilometres of tunnels but it is a high number, built under schools and residential areas.”
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Israeli security sources say Israel’s heavy aerial bombardments have caused little damage to the tunnel infrastructure with Hamas naval commandos able to launch a seaborne attack targeting coastal communities near Gaza.
“Although we have been attacking massively for days and days, the (Hamas) leadership is pretty much intact, as is the ability to command and control, the ability even to try and launch counter attacks,” said Amir Avivi, a former brigadier general whose senior positions in the Israeli military included deputy commander of the Gaza division, tasked with tackling tunnels.
“There is a whole city all over Gaza underneath with depths of 40-50 metres. There are bunkers and headquarters and storage and of course they are connected to more than a thousand rocket launching positions.”
Other sources estimated depths of up to 80 metres.
One Western security source said: “They run for miles. They are made of concrete and very well made. Think of the Viet Cong times 10. They have had years and lots of money with which to work with.”
Another security source, from one of Israel’s neighbouring countries, said Hamas’s tunnels from Egypt remain active.
“The supply chain is still intact these days. The network involved in facilitating co-ordination are some Egyptian military officers. It is unclear if there is knowledge of this by the Egyptian army,” he said.
A small number of narrower, deep, smuggling tunnels were still operating until recently between Egypt and Gaza, according to two security sources and a trader in the Egyptian city of El Arish, but they had slowed to a near-halt since the Israel-Hamas war started.
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