According to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Israel is thinking of flooding the vast network of tunnels beneath Gaza that Hamas militants use to smuggle goods into and out of the Palestinian enclave with seawater.
US officials that the paper spoke with said that in mid-November, the Israeli military set up a massive flooding system near the Al-Shati refugee camp in northwest Gaza. According to reports, the apparatus has five pumps that can extract thousands of cubic metres of water from the Mediterranean Sea every hour. This could enable Israel to fill the underground labyrinth in a matter of weeks.
According to WSJ sources, the Israeli government announced the initiative to the US, a major ally, last month, igniting discussion about the plan’s viability and advantages. They pointed out that Israel’s readiness to carry it out is uncertain and that no firm decision regarding its implementation has been made.
According to the report, the strategy might force Hamas fighters out of the extensive network of tunnels, which stretches hundreds of kilometres and includes passageways that enter Egypt.
Additionally, the network gives Hamas and other regional Islamist organisations strong protection against missile attacks and enables them to get around Israel’s blockade. Some tunnels have a network of communication lines, are constructed out of reinforced concrete, and are tall enough for a normal man to stand upright in.
There are, however, reports that certain US officials have grave concerns about the plan. “We don’t know the specifics of the tunnels or the surrounding ground, so we can’t say how successful pumping will be,” one source stated.
Senior vice president at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Jon Alterman cautioned in a Wall Street Journal interview that it was difficult to predict how much seawater would seep into the ground or how the pumping would affect the infrastructure for sewage and water.
Environmental expert Wim Zwijnenburg concurred, pointing out that floods may flush dangerous substances out of the tunnels and contaminate the ground even more. He also mentioned that rising sea levels have recently caused Gaza’s aquifer to become more salinized.
Since the beginning of October, Israel and Hamas have been engaged in hostilities that have claimed thousands of lives on both sides and resulted in the release of over 200 hostages, many of whom were taken prisoner by Hamas. The ongoing water crisis in Gaza has also been made worse by the fighting. In contrast to the recommended daily intake of 15 litres, Palestinians are reported by the UN to receive as little as three litres.
