(Bloomberg) — The Israeli military says that after nine months of fighting Hamas in Gaza, it’s fracturing the group’s tunnel network through mapping and destroying key underground command-and-control centers and arms factories.
Much of the combat between Hamas and Israel, which has vastly superior weaponry, has taken place in the tunnels. The group, deemed a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, has also used its network to hide some of the 250 hostages it seized in its Oct. 7 raid on southern Israel that triggered the war, making it more difficult for the military to retrieve them.
A tunnel warfare specialist from the army said his unit has learned how to render the tunnels inoperative and had made significant progress. Hamas built tunnels in tiers, with the upper ones used for activities such as prayer, a middle-level for operations, and control centers situated in the lowest levels, the officer, who couldn’t be identified in line with military protocol, told a briefing with foreign media.
While the army has destroyed dozens of kilometres of tunnels and hundreds of shafts, it gauges its success by the significance of the facilities put out of service. In particular, it has eliminated weapons factories deep inside the tunnel network — which the officer described as one of the most extensive anywhere in the world.
This view is shared by some outside experts. John Spencer, who chairs the urban warfare program at the US Military Academy at West Point, and has visited the Gaza battlefield with Israeli generals, said the Hamas network is unmatched.
Daphne Richemond-Barak, a professor at Reichman University outside Tel Aviv and the author of the 2018 book Underground Warfare, said Hamas has, in effect, redesigned the battlefield by moving much of it underground.
About 1,200 people were killed during the initial raid by thousands of Hamas operatives. Israel responded with a punishing war that continues and has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas, which doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Hamas knows that it has no chance against Israel above ground, and therefore has spent the past 17 years in power creating an underground battle space, according to the army tunnel specialist. The Hamas network is entirely connected — the army hasn’t found a single tunnel system cut off from the rest — and those sections that are used to house senior commanders were tiled with synthetic grass, televisions, toilets and furnished like apartments, the officer said.
He said once his forces find a tunnel and map it, which involves robots, dogs and some use of artificial intelligence, it can take weeks to destroy the structure.
Demolishing each kilometre (0.6-mile) of tunnel requires 15 metric tons of TNT and dozens of soldiers to place it by hand. Another method is to squirt liquid TNT into holes drilled into the walls at 200-meter (650-foot) intervals — requiring 12 tons of explosives per kilometre.
Israel’s underground battle against Hamas has sometimes failed.
In late 2023, the army disclosed that it had been flooding some tunnels with seawater. That project, staffed by naval commandos and the top special forces unit, focused on several miles of underground passages in northern Gaza. It was abandoned within weeks, according to three military sources who asked not be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The large volumes of water sluiced in using pumps failed to collapse the tunnels and often sank straight into the sandy soil, they said. The flooding did prompt between 20 and 30 Palestinian gunmen to surface.
Through their investigations and captured documents, the army has learned that digging a standard tunnel of one kilometre took Hamas about a year and cost $275,000. The tunnels are only used by Hamas and not by ordinary Gazans.
Israeli officials have said they are approaching the end of major operations in Gaza, but expect to continue fighting through more targeted operations. Talks for a cease-fire continue.
—With assistance from Dan Williams.