"A spider's web": the tunnel system in the Gaza Strip

Gaza war - "A spider's web": the tunnel system in the Gaza Strip

There is a second world underneath the Gaza Strip: a network of tunnels belonging to the Islamist Hamas stretches for many kilometers. Israel suspects that a number of terrorists from the Islamist organization are hiding in the underground tunnels and are also holding hostages from Israel there. Israeli soldiers are currently testing the flooding of some tunnels in which they do not suspect any hostages, as the US newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" reports. According to US President Joe Biden, he does not know for sure "that there are certainly no hostages in these tunnels."

Israel's army is pumping seawater into some of the tunnels to find out whether the method is suitable for the large-scale destruction of the underground system, reports the US television station CNN, citing a US official in charge of the matter. Experts are concerned that the tactic could have dramatic consequences for the environment.

However, this is not the first time the tactic has been used. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi once had tunnels to the Palestinian coastal area flooded because weapons from the Gaza Strip are also said to have reached extremists in North Sinai through the tunnels.

Israeli army also destroys tunnels with explosive devices

An Israeli army spokesman once described the network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip, which is around 45 kilometers long and around six to 14 kilometers wide, as a metro. According to the Israeli army, it has now discovered hundreds of tunnels. Some of them connect strategic Hamas facilities underground. Soldiers have destroyed many kilometers of underground routes, for example with the help of explosive devices. According to the army, the shafts are located in residential areas, next to schools and kindergartens.

When Israel's air force destroyed parts of the Jabalia refugee quarter in the hunt for Palestinian terrorists, collapsed Hamas tunnels tore holes in the earth's surface, according to the Israeli army. Images showed deep craters in the area.

Dimensions of the tunnel system cannot be quantified

The tunnel system is estimated to be around 500 kilometers long. However, Daphne Richemond-Barak, an expert in underground warfare at Reichman University in Tel Aviv, recently doubted in the New York Times that anyone knows how long the route actually is. "I think Hamas is exaggerating a bit with the 500 kilometers because they want to keep Israel from invading," military expert Harel Chorev from Tel Aviv University also told US broadcaster CNN. "We are talking about dozens of kilometers underground with command, control and communication rooms, storage chambers and launching pads for the missiles."

Some of the tunnels are concreted or supplied with electricity. On average, they are two meters high and one meter wide, but some are also large enough for vehicles. In order to withstand Israeli bombs from the air, some reach dozens of meters underground. Their entrances are said to be located in residential buildings or mosques.

According to Israeli intelligence services, Hamas also operated a command and control center under the Shifa Hospital, the largest clinic in the Gaza Strip. Hamas denies this. Despite massive international criticism, Israel's military penetrated the hospital and, according to its own statements, also found a tunnel complex there. Pictures and videos published by the army showed a narrow tunnel and several rooms, including a room with two bedsteads, toilets and a small kitchen. The tunnel was reportedly ten meters deep and 55 meters long. The military eventually blew up the underground facility.

In November 2022, the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) also strongly condemned the fact that there was a tunnel under one of its schools.

What the underground network is used for

Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, leaving behind a power vacuum. After a bloody battle, Hamas took control of the coastal area in 2007. In response, Israel imposed a blockade, which was supported by Egypt. The blockade was intended to make it more difficult to import weapons and weapons manufacturing materials into the Gaza Strip. Since then, Hamas has continued to expand the ramified underground network. Weapons are said to have been brought into the Gaza Strip through the tunnels. It is said that people can also cross the border irregularly, for example high-ranking Hamas officials, foreign military advisors or couriers with suitcases of money.

Food, consumer goods, cars and fuel also enter the Gaza Strip through the tunnels. A lion for the zoo is also said to have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip in this way. According to local residents, Hamas levies customs duties on all goods and finances itself in this way. The tunnel business is said to have brought Hamas millions in annual revenue. The tunnels also offer the terrorists protection from attacks. They also use them to emerge from nowhere and attack from behind. Many tunnels are booby-trapped to kill Israeli soldiers who enter them.

Hostages in the tunnels

Experts believe that at least some of the remaining 135 hostages are being held captive in the underground tunnels. Hamas terrorists and other extremist Palestinian groups abducted around 240 people from Israel in their massacre on October 7. An 85-year-old woman released from the Gaza Strip on October 23 described the system through which she had to move during the hostage-taking as "a spider's web".

Chorev on CNN Chorev on university website Richemond-Barak in "New York Times" Richemond-Barak on university website Israeli Air Force about tunnel under Shifa hospital Army spokesman 2014 about tunnel system UNRWA about tunnel under own school CNN-2014 article on tunnel costs "Jerusalem Post" on Hamas claims of 500 kilometers of tunnels CNN report on Gaza tunnels INSS analysis on Gaza tunnels (2014) University of Birmingham study on Gaza tunnels (2018) CNN report Wall Street Journal report