Israel confirms it is flooding Hamas terror tunnels with seawater to flush out Gaza fighters and destroy underground headquarters
ISRAEL has confirmed it has begun flooding Hamas' matrix of tunnels under the Gaza Strip with seawater to flush out the terrorists.
The IDF, dubbed the 'Gaza Metro', has changed its tactics and started using large pumps help destroy Hamas's remaining underground strongholds while fierce fighting rages above.
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Today, Israel The military announced that it has “implemented new capabilities” in its efforts to “neutralize underground terrorist infrastructure, including channeling large quantities of water into it.”
The said IDF: “This is an important tool in the fight against the threat of the Hamas underground terrorist infrastructure.”
It followed media reports in December saying Israel was considering and may have started pumping seawater into the vast area labyrinth of tunnels in northern Gaza,
However, experts had warned that this tactic was far too dangerous and posed a major risk to Gaza's prisoners citizens.
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There were also concerns about the approximately 140 hostages still in custody Hamas and their militia allies and likely held in the tunnels.
The IDF statement today said the method will only be used “in locations where appropriate” and that “soil and water systems” will be taken into account before they begin to flood areas.
Hamas' established tunnels, built over the past 16 years, were used to launch Hamas's October 7 attacks and have been a constant thorn in the side of Israel's offensive in the bomb-bombed Strip.
Before the outbreak of war on October 7, a US military report claimed that there were more than 1,300 tunnels forming a network stretching 500 kilometers under the Gaza Strip.
Destroying it remains one of Israel's main war goals.
Israel hopes to completely dismantle the terror network, which they claim is built under schools, hospitals and mosques, and bring the war to the surface.
But with almost half of the tunnel system still intact, Israel fears Hamas leaders could burrow deep underground and survive the war.
Storming the network has proven complicated, as underground warfare leaves troops vulnerable to ambushes, booby traps and the possibility of kidnapping.
Elsewhere, Israel has previously used concrete to destroy tunnels such as those used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah on Israel's border with Lebanon.
Egypt has also flooded smuggling tunnels across the Gaza border in the past.
In December, Israel claimed to have more than destroyed 500 tunnel entrances to bury Hamas terrorists.
Methods include using drones to detect the hidden structures before aircraft take out the deeper defenses with bombs that dig in before exploding.
Armored bulldozers cleared areas above the tunnels attack dogsunmanned vehicles and robots are used to explore underground.
And new high-tech “sponge bombs” – chemical devices that cause an explosion of foam that solidifies into an airtight barrier to seal off entrances – are designed to starve or suffocate Hamas troops.
The news of the tunnel flooding tactic comes after images emerged today showing elites Israeli soldiers disguised as medics kill a Hamas chief and his two accomplices.
The armed special operations team dressed as doctors and nurses to infiltrate a terror base in a hospital to “neutralize” the targets, the IDF said.
It follows a new analysis showing that half of Gaza's buildings have been damaged or destroyed since the outbreak of war.
The BBC revealed that between 144,000 and 175,000 – 50 to 61 percent – buildings have partially collapsed or destroyed across the Gaza Strip.
More than 26,700 people – mostly women and children – have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry.
The ministry's count does not distinguish between fighters and civilians and Israel claims the figures are not accurate.
The war has razed large parts of the small coastal enclave, displaced 85% of the population and pushed a quarter of its residents to famine.
The UN has warned several countries of a further deterioration funding to the main aid provider was frozen in Gaza in the wake of Israeli claims that a dozens of workers took part in the October 7 attack.
Israeli The intelligence agency discovered that seven employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) stormed into Israel and two took part in kidnappings.
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