PNN – The Israeli army is stunned when faced with the Hamas tunnel network in Gaza; Tunnels whose extent is hundreds of times more than what was thought.
According to the Pakistan News Network, the sources of the Israeli army, in a conversation with the media of this regime, express their astonishment regarding the volume, length, depth and complexity of the tunnels of the forces of Izz al-Din al-Qassam (the military branch of Hamas); They openly say that the previous perceptions of the Israeli army have been widely mistaken.
Yediot Aharonot newspaper wrote that the Israeli army was surprised by the size of the tunnel network of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. Israeli military sources have told this newspaper that it seems that the extent of Hamas tunnels is hundreds of times more than what was predicted.
Urban warfare is always a nightmare for classic armies, but if the other side has spent decades digging tunnels throughout their area of ​​influence, it’s sure to be a crazy situation for attackers. The same tunnels that in Vietnam forced the well-armed American army to accept defeat and throw them out of Vietnam after 8 years. The “Ko Chi Ho Chi Minh” tunnels in Vietnam were dug to a depth of 20 meters and had good basic facilities, but they are undoubtedly considered very basic compared to the tunnels dug by Hamas in Gaza.
On December 17, the Israeli army announced the discovery of a four-kilometer long tunnel in the north of Gaza overlooking the Zionist settlements around Gaza, calling it the largest tunnel it has discovered so far. This tunnel has several branches and connections along with plumbing, electricity and communication lines and in some areas it goes down to a depth of 50 meters underground and was wide enough for vehicles to move inside.
The Israeli army announced this discovery to the media with a lot of noise, but the Hebrew channel Ynet wrote that the existence of such a tunnel within a few meters of the Israeli settlements shows the height of negligence of the security institutions regarding the construction of Hamas tunnels, so that one of the openings of this tunnel is located a few meters away from the houses of the settlement of “Native Hetara” and a short distance from the military base of “Eriz”.
During the first days of the army’s land entry into Gaza, the Israeli media quoted officials and sources of this regime and wrote that estimates show that the volume of Hamas tunnels is 100 to 200 kilometers; Even until 2020, there was no information that Hamas tunnels were extended to the settlements; But now the IDF is faced with the frightening reality that it has no idea how large the tunnels are.
But regarding tunnels, there are different types and uses; Some of them are for providing weapons and logistics, some are for relief, some are for attack and defense, and some are the command headquarters, but no one knows about their number and volume and how far they will continue.
Some of these tunnels go to a depth of 30 meters and 60 meters, and in some cases there are multi-story tunnels that are built and equipped with many equipments to the point where some consider them to be the new generation of tunnels. Some are actually not tunnels, they are holes dug to deceive Israeli soldiers and bombed inside or Palestinian forces ambushed inside, so that a large part of the occupation army’s casualties are due to soldiers entering these holes.
An Israeli officer also told the New York Times yesterday that he oversaw the destruction of 50 tunnels in the Beit Hanoun area, which he said were all bombed in different ways.
In this regard, the Economist magazine wrote in a report on Sunday that Tel Aviv believed that these tunnels have a width of several hundred kilometers; But Israeli security officials have recently announced that Hamas’ underground network is more extensive than this. Three months have passed since the start of the war and 24,000 Palestinians have been killed, the Israeli army admits that there is still a lot of time left to destroy even half of this underground network.
According to this publication, dozens of Hamas members are now in guerilla fighting mode, and the Israeli army must often carry out its operations (to destroy the tunnels) under (Hamas) fire. There are many tunnels left and Israel must check how long it can force its soldiers to carry out such dangerous work.
In a video published by Ezzeddin al-Qassam some time ago, it is shown how the Palestinians dragged the Israeli soldiers into one of the tunnels and then clashed with them. The tunnels that the occupying army refers to as “death traps”.