Attack by Hamas | This is known about the Hamas tunnel network called the “Gaza Metro”.

Gazan the lane can be thought of as two overlapping layers. Civilians living on Earth. The terrorist organization Hamas, which attacked Israel last Saturday, is hiding underground, safe in the tunnel network it has built.

“We are trying to gain access to the second floor that Hamas has built,” says a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces Jonathan Conricus on videowhich the defense forces published on the messaging service X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday.

“They are not bunkers for Gazan civilians,” Conricus continues. “They are only for Hamas and other terrorists so that they can continue to fire rockets and let terrorists into Israel,” he says.

However, getting to the tunnels and the Hamas hiding in them is not quite simple in the small Gaza inhabited by more than two million Palestinians.

We knowthat Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has built an extensive network of tunnels under the Israeli-blocked strip through which it can move safely and avoid Israeli surveillance.

Israel calls the network the “Gaza Metro”.

In 2021, a person serving in the Israeli army said anonymously that the network would be “hundreds of kilometers long”, Telegraph tells.

“They are used to move commanders and troops underground, to move munitions, rockets, fuel, food, everything,” he said.

Thanks to the tunnel network, Hamas will be able to wage war for a long time, he believed.

Hamas has previously managed to get its troops to Israel’s side through the tunnels. It has also now been able to use the tunnel network to its advantage in its surprise attack that started on Saturday last week.

The BBC reports on information that the entrance to the tunnel was found near the Kfar Aza kibbutz village, where dozens of civilians were killed by Hamas. If the information is correct, then Hamas would have succeeded in building its tunnel under the concrete barrier built by Israel, which continues underground.

The concrete barrier is part of a fence that cost about one billion euros, which Israel completed in 2021. It is 65 kilometers long “steel wall” the so-called high fence, whose infrastructure includes hundreds of cameras, radar stations and sensors. The concrete wall section of the fence is said to be dug tens of meters underground in order to prevent penetration into Israel via tunnels.

There must be a deep wall, because Hamas’ tunnels are believed to run at a depth of about thirty meters.

Gazan and Israel, the tunnels under the border are often rudimentary – their walls are not reinforced, says an underground warfare expert, teaching at Reichman University in Israel Daphné Richemond-Barak According to the BBC. The tunnels have been dug once for the purpose of infiltrating the territory of Israel.

On the inside of Gaza, on the other hand, the tunnels are more stable. The leaders of Hamas are hiding there, and they have command centers there, says Richemond-Barak.

“The tunnels inside Gaza are different because Hamas uses them regularly,” he says. “They are certainly equipped for a longer, continuous presence.”

The tunnels also have rails for moving goods and ammunition, says Richemond-Barak. Rockets can be moved on rails underground in a network of tunnels, he also says CNBC. This is how Hamas has been able to continue firing rockets from its tunnels.

of Israel according to the army, the tunnels also contain electricity generators, intelligence rooms and equipment for Hamas forces, says the US channel CNBC.

The tunnels entrances have been placed in residential buildings, mosques, schools and other public buildings, the BBC reports.

It is very difficult to destroy tunnels without also causing destruction to the civilian population and infrastructure. The Palestinian organization of the UN, UNRWA Friday’s announcement according to hundreds of thousands of people have had to leave their homes since Saturday last week.

The Israeli military has announced that civilians in the northern parts of Gaza should move to the southern parts of the area. The originally given one-day time limit has already expired. According to the World Health Organization WHO, the announcement means a death sentence for seriously ill and wounded people in northern Gaza, Reuters reports.

The attacks also endanger the hostages taken by Hamas, who, according to a Hamas spokesman, are being held in different parts of the Gaza Strip – for example in tunnels.

“Hamas knows how to use human shields really well. When they know an attack is coming, they put innocent civilians on the roofs of buildings. Because of this, Israel has had to call off attacks many times,” says Richemond-Barak.

Richemond-Barak believes that Hamas could use the hostages in the tunnels in the same way as human shields.

The tunnels has been built at the expense of the civilian population of Gaza. According to Israel, Hamas has built the tunnels with funds and cement intended for the reconstruction of Gaza. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel has informed about it on their website in 2014. In the same year, the ministry told Hamas has built 1,370 tunnels in Gaza at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion.

Originally, the tunnels were especially used to smuggle goods past Israel’s strict blockade ring. Their construction began already in 2005. Later, Hamas began to use them more and more to carry out terrorist attacks on Israeli territory.

Israel made it its goal to destroy the extensive tunnel network in 2014. At that time, it launched a ground attack on Gaza and filled Hamas tunnels with cement.