The Israeli army has been “astonished” by the scale and high quality of the tunnels Hamas has constructed underneath Gaza, based on an article revealed within the New York Occasions on Tuesday.
The tunnel community was initially estimated to incorporate 250 miles (400 km) of underground passages and bunkers. Israel Protection Forces (IDF) has since revised these estimates to 350-450 miles (560-725 km) or extra.
Two officers, who spoke on situation of anonymity, stated there have been shut to five,700 separate shafts main into the tunnels underneath Gaza. Not one of the numbers might be independently verified, nonetheless.
It might take “years” to disable the tunnels, one Israeli official advised the Occasions. They should be mapped, checked for Israeli captives, and “made irreparable,” he stated, acknowledging that the current makes an attempt to destroy the tunnels by flooding them with seawater “have failed.”
Based on one other official, Israel is utilizing a “triangle” mannequin to find the tunnels, which assumes they are going to be discovered underneath any hospital, college or mosque in Gaza.
The Israeli army has underestimated the “extent and significance” of the tunnels to Hamas, which the Occasions described as an “intelligence failure.”
The IDF has not disclosed the variety of troopers killed and wounded in tunnel warfare. Formally, virtually 190 troopers have been killed and 240 or so severely wounded within the preventing for the reason that begin of the bottom marketing campaign in Gaza.
One soldier, who spoke with the Occasions on situation of anonymity, stated that he took had taken half in destroying about 50 tunnels in Beit Hanoun, within the northeast of Gaza. All of them have been rigged with bombs and different explosives, wired to be activated remotely.
The militant group Hamas, which maintains de facto management over Gaza, struck at close by Israeli settlements on October 7, claiming the lives of roughly 1,200 Israelis. One other 240 have been taken into the Palestinian enclave as captives. Israel responded by declaring warfare on Hamas and launching air and artillery strikes on Gaza, adopted by floor troops in November.
Virtually 24,000 Palestinians have been killed and one other 60,000 wounded within the first 100 days of preventing, based on the Gaza well being ministry.
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