{"id":82821,"date":"2023-11-16T17:48:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/israel-hamas-war-five-ways-the-idf-could-tackle-the-tunnels-under-gaza-world-news\/"},"modified":"2023-11-16T17:48:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:48:19","slug":"israel-hamas-war-five-ways-the-idf-could-tackle-the-tunnels-under-gaza-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/israel-hamas-war-five-ways-the-idf-could-tackle-the-tunnels-under-gaza-world-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-Hamas war: Five ways the IDF could tackle the tunnels under Gaza | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Israel-Hamas war: Five ways the IDF could tackle the tunnels under Gaza | World News<\/h2>\n

Israel-Hamas war: Five ways the IDF could tackle the tunnels under Gaza | World News<\/p>\n

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One of the biggest challenges facing Israeli forces during their ground operation in Gaza is the huge network of underground tunnels used by Hamas.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of kilometres long and up to 80m (262ft) deep, the system is used for various reasons – including carrying out attacks, smuggling in goods and storing weapons.<\/p>\n

Israel-Hamas war live: All telecoms go down in Gaza<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 200 Israeli hostages are also thought to be held within the tunnels.<\/p>\n

But they aren’t easy to find, often hidden under buildings of all kinds. So how will the IDF tackle them?<\/p>\n

Military expert Chris Morris told Sky News Israeli forces have five options…<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Sending special forces down<\/strong><\/p>\n

He explained that while Israel doesn’t know the full extent of the tunnel network, it is well-informed and has developed a “special military unit” specifically designed to deal with them.<\/p>\n

“They are very well-equipped, they are very well-trained. They have psychological countermeasures, and they have tests to ensure they are mentally robust enough to, if needed, go down into those tunnels,” the military education teaching fellow said.<\/p>\n

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\n Israeli soldiers entering a tunnel near the Gaza border. Pic: AP
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In the first instance, the IDF would send down unmanned vehicles to check for booby traps and collect robust evidence of activities inside the tunnels, he added.<\/p>\n

But sending people down is never going to be the preferred option and Israel will want to avoid “tunnel fighting at all costs”.<\/p>\n

Ideally, Israeli forces will try “capping off” the tunnels instead…<\/p>\n

2. Destroying entrances into the tunnels.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Morris said Israel could do this by bulldozing them or dropping explosives.<\/p>\n

“There are a number of different, very rudimentary, physical ways that you can take them out, but the challenge is identifying them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Simply sealing off the tunnels will have an effect, but ideally you would want to know what’s down there.”<\/p>\n

3. Block entrance with foam bombs<\/strong><\/p>\n

A foam bomb or a sponge bomb is a specialised chemical device that releases a burst of expanding foam that quickly hardens.<\/p>\n

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Risk of underground tunnels for IDF<\/span>
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“This is one of the Israeli wonder weapons,” Mr Morris said. “They drop these cannisters that effectively block off the tunnels.”<\/p>\n

The downside for Israel is they are only a short-term solution.<\/p>\n

“In the long term, the foam can be removed.”<\/p>\n

4. Sewage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Israel’s fourth option could be to copy a move previously made by Egypt to tackle smuggling – throwing sewage down the tunnels.<\/p>\n

“It’s a very effective solution,” said Mr Morris. “It would make sense militarily for them to use it should the conditions converge.”<\/p>\n

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\n A Palestinian tunnel digger in a tunnel underground in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Pic: AP
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However, it wouldn’t be great “in terms of optics” and it could add to the building humanitarian crisis already spreading across the region.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Statues in honour of Yasser Arafat are destroyed in Tulkarm
Families of Israeli hostages start five-day march<\/strong><\/p>\n

5. From the air<\/strong><\/p>\n

The final option is to use sophisticated weapons to target the tunnels from the air, he said.<\/p>\n

“Israel has quite a significant inventory of weapons that can be dropped from the air, things like bunker busters, that can penetrate the ground,” Mr Morris explained.<\/p>\n

However, even if precision-guided weapons are used, they could cause “a lot of collateral damage”.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Israel-Hamas war: Five ways the IDF could tackle the tunnels under Gaza | World News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel-Hamas war: Five ways the IDF could tackle the tunnels under Gaza | World News Israel-Hamas war: Five ways the IDF could tackle the tunnels under Gaza | World News One of the biggest challenges facing Israeli forces during their ground operation in Gaza is the huge network of underground tunnels used by Hamas. Hundreds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estaql"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}