Hamas’ underground tunnels trouble Israel like no other: report

Jerusalem: Though Israel is on the brink of carrying out a ground offensive in Gaza, it is not that easy as it might seem.

Hamas’ underground tunnel system is troubling the nation from wrapping its head around the maze, according to Bloomberg.

Israel grasped the ‘ full extent’ of the subterranean tunnels in 2014 when it spent over $1 billion to raise an ‘underground barrier along its 60-kilometer border with the Gaza Strip’, Bloomberg reported.

In addition, it took hundreds of millions of dollars more to develop a system to detect the construction of new tunnels.

The network of tunnels, according to the report, is ‘complicating Israel’s ground invasion.

It is all the more so after Hamas claimed to be holding Israeli hostages in the underground rooms.

Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, described Gaza Strip as having two layers; the one for civilians and another for Hamas.

‘We are trying to get to that second layer that Hamas has built,’ Jonathan Conricus was quoted as saying.

That seems to be the most difficult part in the ground attack against Hamas, since the tunnel system is nothing short of a labyrinth.

Only Hamas can say the full extent of the subterranean tunnel system and targeting it will not be easy, according to the report.

Though Israel destroyed 100 kilometers of this network in 2021, Hamas claimed that only 5 percent of 500 kilometers was hit.

This is despite Israel invested huge outlay in 2014 to develop tunnel-detection system hauling in two Israeli firms Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

However, the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Studies reportedly, said that sensors, being not foolproof, get ‘confused by intersections’.

A military expert reportedly said that tunnels still remain ‘ a very effective way’ for undermining the other party’s dominance on the ground, despite there is advanced technology to back it.

Hamas has long been using the tunnel under the thickly populated Gaza to hide ‘weapons, command facilities and fighters’.

At some places depth of the tunnel could reach 35 metres and is often equipped with railroad tracks and communication rooms, report said citing experts.

The passageway in the tunnels get ‘more sophisticated with ventilation shaft and electricity’.

The tunnel network was initially meant to ‘smuggle goods and weapons from Egypt’ into Gaza Strip, which has over the course of time grown into an effective system.