Israel killed several Hamas operatives and targeted their underground tunnels during their ground operations in Gaza yesterday, the military said in their latest update on their war against the Palestinian group. Video footage from the IDF showed Israeli forces on foot and in tanks moving through rural and urban areas of the densely populated territory, which has been wracked by fighting since Israel launched a major offensive against Hamas last week. The IDF said it had hit more than 300 targets in Gaza over the past day, including tunnels and military compounds inside them.
The tunnels, which are often used to smuggle weapons and food into Gaza under a crippling Israeli blockade, can also be used to enter Israel. They extend up to 500 kilometers under the tiny enclave, according to some estimates, and the IDF has warned that any attempt by Hamas to tunnel into Israel will be met with retaliation.
In a nationally televised news conference on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war against Hamas had entered its “second stage,” and Israel would expand its operations on the ground and in the air. He ruled out any ceasefire in the war that started on October 7 following a terror attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 in Israel.
Netanyahu dismissed calls for him to resign over the security failures that led to the outbreak of violence and vowed to keep going until the tunnels are destroyed, despite the risk of widespread humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He was joined by Defence Minister Benny Gantz, the head of the centrist Blue and White Party, who vowed to stay in the emergency government despite being under pressure from his rivals over whether he would quit.
But the tunnels will complicate the Israeli campaign, both above and below ground, experts say. Clearing and collapsing them could take months, they warn. And they will make it harder for Israel to use air strikes to target Hamas leaders and fighters, which are scattered across Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people.
They will also make it hard for Israel to get its soldiers back out of the tunnels, which are lined with booby traps and a maze of passageways that are often too narrow for vehicles to drive through. And they will negate many of the technological advantages that Israel has enjoyed in previous campaigns against Hamas, such as its ability to use drones to map underground routes and identify booby traps.
Hamas also uses the tunnels to hide its leaders, weapons, and supplies. And its fighters are adept at using human shields, which has made it difficult for the IDF to strike them. In one incident in 2021, a series of air strikes brought three residential buildings crashing down on top of a tunnel that was filled with civilians. Unless Israel can find ways to mitigate those risks, its campaign against the tunnels will likely be a long and bloody battle.
