Middle East - Report: Israel has pumps for tunnel flooding
According to a media report,Israel has assembled a system of large pumps with which it could flood the extensive network of tunnels of the Islamist Hamas under the Gaza Strip with seawater.
As theWall Street Journal reported, citing US government officials, it is not known whether the Israeli government intends to use this tactic. Israel has neither made a final decision nor ruled out such a plan, the officials were quoted as saying.
Israeli forces completed the installation of large seawater pumps north of the Al-Shati refugee camp in mid-November, they said. Each of the at least five pumps could draw water from the Mediterranean Sea and direct thousands of cubic meters of water per hour into the tunnels, flooding them within a few weeks, the newspaper reported.
Discussion about tactics
With such a tactic, Israel would be able to destroy the tunnels and drive the terrorists out of their underground hideout, it said. On the other hand, this would threaten the Gaza Strip 's water supply, the US officials were quoted as saying. Israel first informed the US of this option in early November, triggering a discussion in which the feasibility and environmental impact were weighed against the military value of taking out the tunnels, the report said.
The Israeli army says it has found more than 800 tunnel shafts since the start of the Gaza war. Around 500 of these have already been destroyed, the military announced on Sunday. Some of the tunnel shafts connected strategic Hamas facilities underground, it said in a statement. Many kilometers of underground tunnel routes had been destroyed. The information could not initially be independently verified.
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- The potential use of these pumps by Israel to flood Hamas' tunnels in the Gaza Strip has drawn attention in the Middle East, particularly among Palestinian territories' advocates.
- The Wall Street Journal revealed that the USA was aware of Israel's plans to flood Gaza's tunnel system with seawater, despite uncertainty over whether the Israeli government would proceed with the tactic.
- Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip, has heavily relied on a complex network of tunnels for smuggling supplies and launching attacks on Israel, making the Israeli plan a significant concern for the organization.
- The US officials expressed their concerns about the potential impact on the Gaza Strip's water supply if Israel uses its pumps to flood its tunnel system, adding another layer of complexity to the conflict in the Middle East.
- In response to the news about Israel's pumps, various international organizations and human rights groups have called for an urgent dialogue between Israel and Hamas, aiming to find a solution that avoids further straining the livelihoods of the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Source: www.stern.de
