Israel’s Hostage Rescue Highlights Challenge of Hamas Tunnels in Gaza

[Pelican Press 0]

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*******’s ******** Rescue Highlights Challenge of ****** Tunnels in Gaza

The ******** military’s rescue of a ******** from an underground tunnel in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday highlighted one of the biggest remaining impediments to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of eradicating ******: the enclave’s vast and complicated subterranean network that shelters many of the militant group’s remaining leaders.

*******’s military said on Tuesday that it had rescued Farhan al-Qadi, a member of *******’s Bedouin ***** ********* who was abducted on Oct. 7, from an underground ****** tunnel in southern Gaza. According to two senior officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters, ******** forces appear to have found Mr. al-Qadi by chance as they were combing through a tunnel network for ****** fighters.

It was the second time in two weeks that ******’s network of tunnels featured prominently in *******’s accounts of ******** recovery efforts, shining some light on a mostly unseen aspect of the war that looms large for the country’s military and government officials. Last week, ******** troops said they had recovered the bodies of six hostages hidden behind concrete lining in an underground route connected to a 10-meter-deep tunnel shaft.

These underground discoveries after nearly 11 months of war show just how elaborate and extensive ******’s tunnel network has turned out to be, experts say. Some of the tunnels are hundreds of miles long, according to ********, ****** and U.S. officials.

“The tunnels are massive,” said Dan Byman, a senior fellow with the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The war in Gaza has revealed two surprises about the subterranean system that ****** built, he added: There are more tunnels, and they are more serpentine, than previously believed.

The tunnels serve ****** in multiple ways, Mr. Byman said. Not only can the group hide its leaders and hostages in them, but capturing the tunnels — where ******** forces are much more vulnerable and have to move very slowly — is far ******* than taking a building above ground.

“The advantage of *******’s military is tremendous coordination and situational awareness, and in tunnels that’s much *******,” he said.

Trying to ******** the subterranean system from above is also problematic, Mr. Byman said, because it takes big ****** that cause a lot of damage and potentially risk the lives of hostages hidden in the tunnels. He posited that many of the remaining living hostages were being held underground, perhaps alongside ****** leaders, given that “they are a very valuable asset” and “one of ******’s chief bargaining chips.”

The ******** military has tried several tactics during the war to drive ****** fighters aboveground, including flooding the tunnels and sealing them, said James Wirtz, a professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. They also regularly explode the tunnel entrances, and send dogs, drones and robots inside them to avoid risking the life of a soldier.

“It’s horrible,” Mr. Wirtz said. “There are turns and side rooms and ****** traps. It’s a hard thing to ask a soldier to do.”

The ******** military has said it is making progress in eliminating ******’s underground infrastructure. On Aug. 15, the military said it had destroyed about 50 tunnels in a week, and it released video footage of soldiers blowing up burrows and building materials in an area along the border with Egypt that ******* calls the Philadelphi Corridor.

Making sure that those tunnels and others will not be rebuilt has been a critical issue in the cease-***** negotiations being mediated between ******* and ******. Mr. Netanyahu has said he wants some ******** troops to continue to patrol the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent ****** from rearming after the war or rebuilding tunnels to Egypt.

His stated goal is to eliminate ******, its leaders and its infrastructure, a mission that some in the ******** military community have suggested is unrealistic. The ******** military earlier this month said it had ******* 17,000 militants in the war, but troops have repeatedly battled resurgences in areas of Gaza that it had previously declared cleared of ****** fighters. And some of the militant group’s top leaders have survived.

In November, a freed ******** ******** described how Yahya Sinwar, a ****** leader who is now the group’s political chief, had addressed a large number of ******** captives underground not long after the Oct. 7 attacks, saying that they were safe and that no harm would come to them. The ******* States and ******* were working hard at the time to find and capture Mr. Sinwar — and have been trying ever since.

In January, ******** commandos raided an elaborate tunnel complex in southern Gaza based on intelligence that Mr. Sinwar was hiding there. But he had left the underground bunker days earlier and ******** at large.

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#Israels #******** #Rescue #Highlights #Challenge #****** #Tunnels #Gaza

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