Israel has reportedly assembled a large system of pumps that can be used to flood tunnels under the Gaza Strip with seawater that Hamas uses to drive out the group’s militants, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials, Reuters reports.

In mid-November, the Israeli military completed the installation of at least five pumps about 1.6 kilometers north of the Al-Shati refugee camp that could pump thousands of cubic meters of water per hour from the sea, flooding the tunnels within weeks. , the Wall Street Journal reports.

It was unclear whether Israel would consider using the pumps until all the hostages were freed, as Hamas claimed it had hidden the prisoners in “safe places and tunnels”.

Asked about the information, a US official said it made sense for Israel to disable the tunnels and was considering several ways to do so.

The Israeli Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on this possible Israeli plan, Reuters writes.

The Wall Street Journal notes that an official spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment on the plan, but said that “the IDF is working in a variety of ways to eliminate Hamas’ terrorist potential using various military and technological tools.”

Israel first notified the United States of this option last month, the Wall Street Journal also reported, noting that American officials did not know how close Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was to implementing such a plan.

Israel has not yet made a final decision on whether to implement or exclude such a plan, the Wall Street Journal quoted the official as saying, Reuters reports.

Hamas guerrilla strategy against Israel

One of the huge challenges facing the Israeli military is the Hamas tunnels in Gaza. The Islamist group is estimated to have 1,300 tunnels stretching some 500 kilometers, some of which are as deep as 70 meters underground, according to ABC Spain, as quoted by Rador Radio Romania.

Most of these underground channels are two meters high and two meters wide. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government believes hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 attack are being held in these tunnels.

In an article published by the Modern Warfare Institute of the United States Military Academy, former US military officer John Spencer says that the “Gaza Metro” is Israel’s nightmare because it is the real “city” that Hamas would make possible in the event of a ground invasion. use it defensively and offensively. Spencer says the most recent example of what can happen is Israel in 2014, when it launched a ground campaign to destroy Hamas.

Gaza’s “metro” has power generators, ventilation, water pipes and food supplies that allow militants to survive under shelling. “Interconnected tunnels under urban areas allow Hamas to move quickly between attack positions prepared with caches of sniper rifles, anti-tank ammunition, grenade launchers and other weapons. The tunnels will become a vital element of Hamas’ guerrilla warfare strategy,” explains the former US military.

Hamas will also use the tunnels to hide and move missiles. They can be remotely detonated or transported to hidden launch sites at the last minute.

The Israeli army has a unit that specializes in these types of tactics: the Yahalom unit of the Engineering Combat Corps. Specializing in finding, clearing and destroying tunnels, they are well equipped to deal with new forms of covert warfare. They use ground and airborne sensors, radar, drilling equipment and other systems to find tunnels. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also uses virtual reality training simulators that allow soldiers to train even when they are not on the training grounds.

The task facing the IDF is difficult due to the kilometer size of the tunnels and the positions in which they are located.

Read also: CNN analysis: “Gaza Metro”: behind the mysterious network of underground tunnels used by Hamas