‘Gaza Metro’ flood alert: Here’s how Israel plans to flush Hamas out of ‘terror tunnels’

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has reportedly put plans in place to literally flush Hamas fighters out of the Palestinian Islamist militant group’s maze of underground tunnels dubbed the “Gaza Metro”.

Quoting US officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the IDF already set up five large water pumps close to the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.

These have the capacity to pump thousands of cubic metres of water per hour from the Mediterranean Sea into the tunnels, flooding and destroying the underground network of passages and hideaways.

Plans in place to flood and destroy Hamas ‘terror tunnels’

According to the publication, Israel alerted the United States to the plan last month, but the officials said it was not clear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has yet decided to implement it or when.

“The IDF is operating to dismantle Hamas’s terror capabilities in various ways, using different military and technological tools,” an IDF official was quoted as saying.

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Risk factors

Hostages

The report noted it was unclear whether the IDF would move to flood the “terror tunnels” before all those who were taken hostage by Hamas during the group’s unprecedented 7 October attack in southern Israel, were freed.

This due to the risk factor posed to some hostages who were apparently held captive underground. Hamas has previously said it has hidden captives in “safe places and tunnels”.

Damage to aquifer, soil, buildings

Other concerns cited around the flooding of the tunnels, include potential damage to Gaza’s aquifer and soil, if seawater and hazardous substances in the tunnels seep into them, as well as the possible impact on the foundations of buildings.

In 2015, the Egyptian military, however, successfully  flooded several smuggling tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip’s southern border, as per the The Times of Israel.

Gaza Metro fact-file

• According to the BBC, the actual size of the subterranean network – which stretches beneath a territory that is only 41km long and 10km wide – is difficult to establish. Hamas has previously claimed that its tunnels stretched 500km.
• Tunnel construction began in Gaza before Israel withdrew its troops and settlers in 2005.
• The construction intensified after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. This led to Israel and Egypt placing restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out for security reasons.
• At its peak, almost 2 500 tunnels running underneath the Egyptian border were used to smuggle in commercial goods, fuel and weapons by Hamas and other militant groups.

Tunnel shafts in civilian areas in Gaza Strip

The Times of Israel reported that the IDF announced over the weekend that more than 800 tunnel shafts were discovered in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the ground offensive targeting Hamas in late October.

The military said it has also destroyed hundreds of kilometres of tunnels, in addition to some 500 shafts.

“The shafts were located in civilian areas, and many of them were located near or inside educational institutions, kindergartens, mosques, and playgrounds,” the IDF added.

Seven-day truce

A seven-day truce lapsed on Friday after Hamas did not release a list of hostages and began firing rockets an hour before the truce was due to expire.

So far, the militant group has released 105 of the 240 civilian hostages it took during the 7 October massacre in which 1 200 people were murdered.

In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian security prisoners, all women and minors. Additionally, some 200 supply trucks entered Gaza each day during the truce.

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