The destruction of Hamas's underground tunnel system is slow and laborious. “Foreign Policy” describes the complex situation for Israel.
Gaza – Israeli troops have been discovering more and more Hamas underground tunnels for weeks. They carefully map their course and destroy them. The actions are laborious and dangerous. The trade magazine reports on this Foreign policy.
War in Israel and Gaza: Hamas tunnel as Israel's main enemy
In the ten weeks since Israel's ground campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip began, Israeli troops have discovered and mapped a number of underground tunnels. The network in which Hamas fighters hide themselves and their prisoners, plan operations, store weapons and lure Israeli soldiers into ambushes is a key part of the group's military infrastructure. It has proven to be Israel's greatest weakness in this war. Their destruction is essential to weaken Hamas's military capabilities and prevent attacks like the one on October 7, in which around 1,200 people were killed. But the process is laborious and lengthy.
As we enter the new year, an important question arises for military planners and analysts seeking to learn lessons from this campaign: How close is Israel to destroying the tunnel network? And how long will it take his troops to overcome this threat? War in tunnels has always been one of the deadliest and most complicated forms of combat. During the First World War, many thousands of British soldiers died trying to destroy German underground positions. Years later, the United States fought against deeply entrenched enemies in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Armies faced with these subterranean threats typically deployed their most powerful weapons, including B-52s, flamethrowers, thermobaric weapons, bunker bombs, and other airborne precision-guided missiles. Often these measures have been insufficient to eliminate an enemy operating out of caves, tunnels, and other artificial or man-made underground structures. Israel experienced this the hard way. The discovery in 2014 of cross-border tunnels dug by Hamas between the Gaza Strip and Israel highlighted the significant security risk they pose, particularly when located close to civilian populations.
Israel-Gaza War: The Underground as the Center of the Operation
Israel's military operation against Hamas that year was the first war in the 21st century in which tunnels became the focus of military operations – a development that would later shape the Syrian civil war. Israel was aware that tunnels could be used to kidnap soldiers and civilians, infiltrate Israeli territory and carry out brutal attacks. But the Israeli focus on tunnels, if there has been a concerted one, has been largely devoted to cross-border tunnels – rather than to Hamas's ever-growing underground military facilities inside the Gaza Strip.
After the 2014 war, Israel moved to a more strategic approach and increased its efforts. It established elite units specialized in tunnel warfare, built its own tunnel structures for training soldiers, improved tunnel detection with mobile units and targeted research and development, developed unique tactical solutions to improve defense readiness, and increased cooperation with partners and allies. As a result, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered the current war with the most advanced military capabilities to detect, map, neutralize and destroy tunnels. However, this did not stop Hamas from digging tunnels or lessen the challenge of fighting in an underground environment. Even the IDF's most specialized units have suffered casualties due to booby-trapped tunnel entrances.
These units have also uncovered a new generation of Hamas tunnels. The group's rudimentary structures from the early 2000s were reinforced with wooden planks. Today's networks are deeper and harder, resembling the large infiltration tunnels in North Korea. Hamas dug it using state-of-the-art civilian drilling technology, taking its underground capabilities to a new level.
Israel-Gaza War: Hamas and its underground survival
Hamas's growing dependence on the tunnels and its extensive construction work have paid off. Never in the history of tunnel warfare has a defender been able to remain in such close quarters for months. The digging itself, the innovative methods by which Hamas uses the tunnels, and the group's survival underground for such a long period of time are unprecedented. For the Israeli soldiers, advancing in this dangerous terrain required a systematic approach. The IDF's air and early ground operations were aimed at gai
ning control of the surface and reducing the risks that urban warfare poses to fighters and civilians. Buildings were destroyed to limit sniper attacks and ambushes, and northern Gaza was largely evacuated to reduce civilian casualties. Troops cleared the ground with armored bulldozers to uncover tunnel openings.
These openings, called tunnel pits, are essentially deadly holes in the ground. They can vary in size and shape and are usually camouflaged and booby-trapped. They lead down to the tunnel shafts – the part of the underground structure designed to penetrate deep into the ground and access a wider network of tunnels. During their search, Israeli soldiers discovered hundreds of tunnel shafts, making the advance slow and complicated. These shafts allowed Hamas fighters to emerge from the ground, fire at the troops with automatic weapons or rocket launchers and disappear within seconds. The IDF sealed or destroyed many of these openings as a temporary measure so that troops could continue their advance and secure the site.
The next step was to map and learn more about the tunnel network. The soldiers remained on the surface until they could safely enter the tunnels to gather intelligence and search for hostages, about 240 of whom were kidnapped during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
War in Israel and Gaza: Time as the most valuable resource
The troops initially sent robots and drones equipped with video cameras into the tunnels, as well as dogs that could detect the presence of explosives or people. These and other measures helped reveal the extent and scope of the tunnel network and allowed soldiers to enter the tunnels before they began their destruction. Missing any of these steps would have been fatal for IDF soldiers, Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians.
Time is the most valuable resource in this endeavor as troops operate in a complex military environment that combines war in the cities, war in the tunnels and search and rescue operations. Finding the remaining tunnels, avoiding booby traps and avoiding surprise attacks requires a slow and methodical approach. In Gaza, as in previous underground wars, the tunnels have unsettled the armed forces, caused significant casualties, delayed the end of the war and made victory uncertain.
It is already clear that Israel cannot possibly track down or map Hamas' entire tunnel network. In my opinion, for Israel to convincingly declare victory, it must destroy at least two-thirds of Hamas's known underground infrastructure. To achieve this goal, Israel has reportedly decided to pump large amounts of seawater into the tunnels. The war in the tunnels has traditionally spawned military innovation, and this war is no exception. At the strategic level, seawater flooding is an attempt by the IDF to gain a military advantage in an area that the enemy has been exploiting unmolested for decades. At an operational level, flooding could represent an expansion of the anti-tunnel arsenal, which has so far consisted almost exclusively of bunker bombs. These bombs have a limited ability to penetrate the ground and cannot be used in all terrain.
Hamas tunnel in the Gaza war: flooding as a suitable method?
It wouldn't be the first time that armies have flooded enemy tunnels during a war. However, the traditional method via tunnel shafts has only a limited effect. To successfully destroy the structure and achieve what is known in the trade as a “hard kill”, water must be injected at high volume and pressure directly from the sea into the horizontal sections of the tunnels to reduce the force exerted on the cement to reinforce. Only an approach that includes these three elements – high volume, high pressure and direct horizontal injection – can cause the complete destruction of the tunnel structure.
There are fears that pumping seawater horizontally into the tunnels could accidentally, if not intentionally, contaminate groundwater sources. Coastal groundwater, the only source of water accessible to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, is already known to be contaminated and unsuitable for consumption due to excessive water extraction. The possibility of irreversible damage to groundwater storage must be compared with the potential harm caused to civilians on the surface by other methods of tunnel destruction – including aerial bombardment. The seawater method cannot be used in all cases. Some of the tunnels are too far from the coast, while others are deliberately isolated from the main groups. Israel could avoid using this method altogether in tunnels where hostages are suspected. Nevertheless, with this approach it is at least theoretically possible for Israel to achieve its goal of destroying significant parts of the tunnel infrastructure.
As Israel attempts to destroy the underground network, troops remain under fire and more tunnels are being discovered every day. It could take a few more months to complete this task. In a tunnel war that requires endurance, time and persistence, an early end to the war could mean defeat. To avoid such an outcome, Israel's ability to determine its own timetable is critical.
About the author
Daphne Richemond-Barak is an assistant professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University in Israel. She is the author of the book “Underground Warfare” and co-founder of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare. Twitter: @RichemondBarak
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on January 6, 2024 in the magazine “ForeignPolicy.com“ was published – as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.
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