Israel Begins Pumping Seawater Into Hamas Tunnels in Gaza, According to Wall Street Journal
In a move aimed at neutralizing and destroying the underground terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, Israel has reportedly begun pumping seawater into the Hamas tunnels, as reported by The Wall Street Journal today.
American officials briefed on IDF operations in Gaza revealed that this method of flooding the tunnels with seawater is just one of several techniques being used by Israel to evacuate and destroy the tunnels, which are used by Hamas to maneuver fighters on the battlefield and store rockets and ammunition.
According to the report, Israel informed the Americans that they had started a “careful examination” of flooding the terror tunnels with seawater in a limited way to assess the potential impact of this move. Israeli sources quoted in the report also mentioned that some of the abductees are being held in these tunnels.
However, despite the effectiveness of this method in destroying parts of the tunnel network, some senior Biden administration officials have expressed concerns about the potential impact on Gaza’s fresh water supply. Egypt previously used the flooding technique to neutralize tunnels under the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, which resulted in complaints from farmers about damaged crops.
Spokespeople for the office of the Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, refused to comment on the report and stated that “the operations in the tunnels are classified.”
It is unclear how long the pumping of seawater into the Hamas tunnels will continue, but according to the report, it may last for weeks as Israel seeks to neutralize and destroy the underground terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.