Israel lastly admitted Tuesday that it’s pumping seawater into Hamas’ tunnels to attempt to dismantle the fear group’s underground community in Gaza — a transfer that the US has warned may endanger the hostages.
After greater than a month of declining to touch upon stories that the Israel Protection Forces was flooding Hamas tunnels utilizing water from the Mediterranean Sea, Israeli officers lastly acknowledged they’re utilizing the tactic.
“The IDF has applied new capabilities throughout the warfare, with the purpose of neutralizing underground terrorist infrastructure, together with by channeling giant volumes of water into them,” the Israeli navy mentioned in a press release on X.
“It is a important device in combating the specter of Hamas’ underground terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF added.
US officers have expressed considerations over the technique, warning that it may endanger the lives of the greater than 100 hostages nonetheless being held by Hamas.
It isn’t clear whether or not any of the hostages are nonetheless within the tunnels.
Specialists have additionally warned in regards to the potential results that pumping seawater underground may have on Gaza’s restricted clear water provide, in addition to presumably polluting the soil with hazardous supplies from Hamas’ weapons hidden within the tunnels.
The strategy was applied with the assistance of the Israeli Ministry of Protection and has been deployed provided that applicable after troopers research the soil and water programs within the space, in accordance with the IDF.
The flooding technique was first uncovered in December after a Wall Avenue Journal report relating to the IDF’s development of seven pumps in northern Gaza.
Israeli officers remained coy on reporters’ questions in regards to the pumping, with IDF chief of employees Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi declining to verify the flooding tactic on the time, merely calling it “a good suggestion.”
The IDF mentioned it carries out a “skilled and complete” research on which tunnels are flooded in order to make sure the groundwater in Gaza just isn’t contaminated.
Regardless of the usage of flooding, explosives and precision airstrikes, Israel has solely destroyed about 20% to 40% of Hamas’ estimated greater than 300-mile-long subterranean system, US and Israeli officers instructed the Journal.
Final month, the IDF acknowledged it had found 800 tunnels throughout its floor assault in Gaza, with solely 500 rendered inoperable on the time.
US and Israeli officers estimate that greater than half of Hamas’ tunnels throughout Gaza are nonetheless operable, with a lot of the infamous so-called “Gaza Metro” nonetheless a thriller to the advancing IDF.
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