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The has a story today about the network of tunnels dug beneath Gaza by Hamas fighters. The entire network is estimated to stretch over 300 miles despite the Gaza strip being on 25 miles long. It’s where Hamas fighters have been hiding out since the start of Israel’s military response to the 10/7 attack. But the IDF has no intention of entering the tunnels which are likely booby-trapped.
Israeli military protocol generally prohibits regular ground troops from entering tunnels, as the chances of being killed or captured is too high. Israelis have seen their soldiers grabbed and dragged into tunnels, so the likely strategy will be to attempt to destroy them from a distance.
In an interview last week with The , senior Hamas leader Ali Baraka, based in Beirut, said that “the fighters are underground, waiting for the battle.” He claimed that there are 40,000 operatives in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military arm, and 20,000 in other factions. “They can’t handle 60,000,” he said, calling out the Israeli military…
Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said, “We are not going to enter the tunnels themselves; we are not going to fight in the tunnels, 30, 40 meters under the ground.”
“We have, I assume, some creative means and manners that will enable us to destroy these tunnels on the heads of Hamas terrorists that are hiding inside,” Michael said, declining to speculate on the use of classified sensors in the field.
So what are Israel’s options if they aren’t going to send troops into the tunnels to fight? The first and most obvious is aerial bombardment of suspected tunnel sites.
