2023-10-31 01:13:00
The Israeli army has begun its ground operation and is particularly targeting Hamas’ underground network, a real city beneath the city, a labyrinth of almost impenetrable tunnels. These are complementary networks that have been used and integrated into the strategy of terrorist groups for a long time. They are increasingly seeking to exploit them to advance their strategic objectives. A network that blinds Israel’s efforts to glean information. Interview with Daphné Richemond-Barak, specialist in urban conflicts, professor at the International Counterterrorism Institute at Reichman University in Tel Aviv.
RFI: You are the author of The underground waryou were able to go to some tunnels built by Hamas?
Daphne Richemond-Barak : I was in the tunnels which are on the border between Gaza and Israel, on the Israeli side, those which passed under the border. And I was also in the tunnels that were dug by Hezbollah. So once again at the border on Israeli territory. The Hamas tunnels, Hamas has been working on them for 20 years, so it’s not a big surprise for Israel either and it shouldn’t be a surprise for the whole world either, because it’s a job long-term effort that Hamas has carried out to build an extremely complex, extremely sophisticated underground network, which in fact makes Hamas almost impenetrable.
Furthermore, they allow Hamas to operate far from the technological eyes of the State of Israel and the Israeli army, which is nevertheless one of the most efficient armies in the world. The main goal of these tunnels is precisely to reduce this strategic advantage that Israel has over a terrorist group like Hamas and to completely neutralize all its advantage, all that may be asymmetrical between a State with a successful army and on the other side a terrorist group.
What do these tunnels look like?
You enter a Hamas tunnel, it is completely dark. You don’t see anything, it seems infinite. You don’t know if there are arteries going to the right or left, if there are ladders, if there are stairs, but there certainly are. You don’t see them. There may also be people in these tunnels, but you don’t see them either. Immediately, when you enter the tunnel, you lose all sense of direction, you no longer have the slightest idea of what is happening. Are you heading towards Gaza? Are you heading to Egypt? You completely lose your points of reference. You lose all sense of direction, you are disoriented. It’s claustrophobia. It’s extremely scary and it’s a bit like a nightmare: once you go in, you don’t really know how you’re going to get out.
You mention the difference between the different tunnels. Is there a typology of tunnels that were built and developed by Hamas?
Very often, a distinction is made between tunnels used for offensive reasons and defensive reasons. I refuse this “typology”. For what ? Because for me, a tunnel is a tunnel. That is to say, from a strategic point of view, a tunnel can be used for a whole range of reasons. It can be used to carry out an attack, to carry out an ambush, to kidnap civilians or soldiers, to orchestrate trafficking. On the other hand, not all tunnels are the same and the way to combat them, the way to detect them, the way to eliminate them is not necessarily the same either. The tunnels in Gaza, the underground network created by Hamas, are today the subject of the Israeli offensive.
There are the tunnels on the border between Gaza and Israel that have been talked about a lot, including that of Ein Hashlosha in 2013, but there are also some that were discovered during Operation Protective Edge, for example in 2014. There are there are those which are on southern Lebanese territory, we call them nature reserves. They’ve been there for a very long time, so again it’s not something new in this region of the Middle East, but each network has its specificities. Finally, there are those which are also built by Hamas and which go to Egypt, these, they are between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and they were used mainly to smuggle weapons. Egypt tried to eliminate them, but without much success. And today, the probability is that these tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, therefore another type of tunnels, were used to supply Hamas with weapons before the attack of October 7.
How big is this network?
The scale is immense. The Gaza Strip is a fairly small territory. But these tunnels are not built in a linear fashion, they are zigzag. They are on several levels. Moreover, the hostages who were in these tunnels say that they walked for kilometers, it is because there are kilometers of tunnels and these tunnels do not date from yesterday, that is to say say if you compare with what happened with Daesh in Syria and Iraq, they were in the tunnels, but tunnels used for maybe a few weeks, a few months. What’s happening in Gaza is on a whole different level. It’s much more sophisticated, it’s modern. Yes, it does indeed look like what we show on these films that the Israeli army has published.
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How big are they? How are they made up?
There are arteries, there are rooms, there are halls, there are doors, electricity, there are places where Hamas lives – underground. It’s a real military base. It is a military base under a civilian population, which in itself is already a war crime, but above all it endangers the population of Gaza. This military base under their feet exposes them to explosions and collapses. This exposes them to military attacks from the Israeli army, they are the first victims of this underground war. Most underground passages are not very wide.
But you should know that if there is an influence from Iran, maybe things have changed a little. It’s impossible to be certain today, but we could see things like North Korea or Iran, that is to say wider passages, where we could pass with a motorbike, possibly with a truck . It’s not confirmed, but it’s possible. It is possible that there are places where weapons are manufactured, where they are stored. A military effort worthy of a state.
How come Israel knows so little about Hamas’ activities?
It is precisely because of the tunnels, Israel is blinded by these tunnels which prevent it from knowing what Hamas is planning, as we have clearly seen. One of the reasons why Israel did not see what happened on October 7 is because it was planned underground and it is very difficult to have communications networks there. The information is very limited.
If Israel doesn’t really know what it is going to destroy and what method to use, how can this entire network be destroyed?
Operationally, this is an extremely complicated mission. For what ? Because there is a triple challenge. Above all, we are in an urban area where there is a population. Even if we requested evacuation, there certainly remains, it is urban land with houses, with mosques, etc. Then, underground warfare itself is extremely complicated, we can see this because states have always deployed their most capable weapons against tunnels, whether in Vietnam or during the First World War or even during the Second World War.
Finally, we must add an additional challenge, the hostages, who are in the tunnels. There are priorities to take into account, between the lives of the hostages, the lives of innocent civilians who are in the Gaza Strip, the risk to which the soldiers have subjected themselves in these tunnels which were prepared by Hamas. It’s about finding a balance between these different priorities which are in fact completely mutually exclusive and trying to break through this challenge militarily. This triple challenge is what Israel must succeed in, and it is almost insurmountable from a military point of view.
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Could all this determine the outcome of the war?
We are talking here about neighbors who are a few meters from the border. We talk about the fact that these “neighbors” operate in coordination, not always on the same wavelength, but in coordination with what is happening in the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran. So, this is an effort that is regional and I think for Israel, it is an existential war. At this stage, there is no question of losing the war, there is no question of a ceasefire either because it is a question of the right to self-defense. It’s embarrassing, it’s slow. There will be losses, there will be losses of civilians and losses of soldiers. It is and it is laborious and it is tragic.
These tunnels in Gaza, at the borders, in Lebanon, in Egypt… Can they be eradicated?
To be able to completely eradicate them, you need to know them all. We must detect them all. You have to know where they are going, where they are leaving exactly… It’s a huge job. But there are strategies that can be put in place, for example constant monitoring of the border to see if there are trucks transporting soil, to see if there are sheds being created to be able to just to hide this tunnel construction activity a little. The tunnels are getting deeper and deeper. Hamas benefits from all this know-how that was obtained in Syria and Iraq. You should know that there may be influence from Iran too. We are not necessarily at the end of our surprises and even if Israel has improved its capabilities in this area, you should know that on the other side, Hamas has also learned and invested. This is the reality of a race between the two parties.
Daphné Richemond-Barak, specialist in urban conflicts, professor at the International Counterterrorism Institute at Reichman University in Tel Aviv. © Clea Broadhurst / RFI
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