The tunnel within the northern Gaza Strip is huge sufficient for a big automotive to cross by way of, bolstered with concrete and fitted with electrical wiring. And at the least one part of the tunnel — which Israel says is the biggest it has found in Gaza to date — is inside strolling distance of an Israeli border crossing.
Israel’s army officers, who took a gaggle of reporters, together with two journalists from The New York Instances, into the tunnel on Friday, say that its measurement and complexity present the dimensions of the problem they face as they attempt to wipe out Hamas. The group has constructed a community of tunnels all through Gaza that enable it to evade and assault Israeli forces, the army says.
The army organized the tour as Israel comes beneath rising stress to wind down probably the most intense part of the struggle inside weeks to attempt to restrict the loss of life toll; already, the Gazan well being ministry says, practically 20,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The Biden administration envisions Israel transitioning from its large-scale floor and air marketing campaign to 1 that might contain elite forces conducting extra exact, intelligence-driven missions to seek out and kill Hamas leaders and rescue the hostages seized in the course of the group’s assault Israel on Oct. 7, U.S. officers say.
The scale of the tunnel the journalists toured on Friday and its proximity to the border was a reminder not simply of the challenges that lie forward for Israel but additionally its failure to forestall such a construction from being constructed within the first place.
However the Israeli army’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, who was among the many officers conducting the tour, mentioned it was necessary to notice that the tunnel was proof of Hamas having diverted constructing supplies, particularly concrete, away from civilian use.
“This tunnel had been built for years,” he mentioned. “Millions of dollars have been spent on this tunnel, hundreds of tons of cement, a lot of electricity. Instead of spending all of them — the money, the cement, the electricity — on hospitals, schools, housing and other needs of the Gazans.”
The Instances agreed to attend till Sunday to publish particulars of the tour, however there have been in any other case no restrictions positioned on how the go to could be reported. The journalists have been accompanied the entire time and weren’t allowed to wander farther into the tunnel, with the Israeli forces stopping journalists at about 150 to 200 meters, about 650 toes.
However even in that quick part, it was potential to see that the tunnel continued an excellent distance forward. Vertical shafts prolonged down from the principle tube, suggesting, Israeli officers mentioned, that the tunnel is perhaps linked to a bigger community deeper into the earth.
Two army officers interviewed after the tour say that lately gathered intelligence indicated that Israel has grossly underestimated the scale of the underground community. The system, which the military beforehand estimated was about 60 miles lengthy, is now believed to be nearer to 250 miles lengthy, they mentioned.
These claims and different assertions concerning the tunnels couldn’t be independently verified.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has spent years digging a warren of tunnels beneath the enclave, based on Israeli officers. The community, which they are saying snakes under dense residential neighborhoods throughout a lot of the strip, is a veritable subway system for the militant group, which makes use of the labyrinth to cover and transport weapons and fighters.
The tunnels have been a main goal for assaults since Israel declared struggle on Hamas within the wake of the Oct. 7 assault on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 folks. However as worldwide anger at civilian deaths in Gaza grows, some Israeli officers say they’ve been attempting to provide you with alternative routes of destroying the tunnels apart from bombing.
Prior to now month, Israeli army engineers have experimented with pumping seawater into the tunnels in northern Gaza in an effort to pressure out any fighters hiding there, based on Israeli army officers interviewed after the tour who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly concerning the effort. It’s unclear if the approach will work, given the pressure wanted to ship water cascading by way of the system’s a number of offshoots, the officers mentioned.
Apart from arranging Friday’s tour, the Israeli army additionally gave reporters a video that reveals males utilizing massive earth-moving machines digging a tunnel. The army mentioned it had obtained the video when it raided Hamas workplaces throughout its floor invasion. The video reveals that the work is being carried out in a big constructing that appears like a warehouse.
It was unclear the place the video was shot, however the Israeli army mentioned that the video confirmed the development of the tunnel toured on Friday.
Two officers mentioned Israeli leaders have been shocked by the video’s contents as a result of they’d not realized that Hamas had entry to these kinds of earth-moving machines, which may extra safely and rapidly construct very massive tunnels. Till the invention of the video, the officers mentioned they thought that solely Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group primarily based in Lebanon, not Hamas, might construct such massive tunnels.
The army mentioned the tunnel the place it carried out the tour was the primary it had discovered that was large enough to permit automobiles or different autos to maneuver by way of.
On Sunday, the army launched another video that it mentioned confirmed a brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza, being pushed in a automotive by way of the tunnel. The army mentioned the presence of Mr. Sinwar’s brother Muhammed — who can also be thought of a prime Hamas chief and his brother’s confidant — indicated the strategic significance of this tunnel.
The underground passageways have change into a central component of the knowledge struggle additionally being fought over Gaza.
Final month, as Israel forces moved to occupy Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, which it mentioned was providing cowl for a subterranean Hamas base, the militants and hospital officers insisted that the power was used solely to deal with sufferers.
However after Israeli troopers captured Al-Shifa, they carried out a tour wherein journalists have been proven a 350-foot part of tunnel and rooms beneath the hospital. The army argued that the tunnel, together with weapons it mentioned had been discovered within the hospital and safety video of hostages being taken inside by armed males, supported its choice to ship its troops there.
