The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has reportedly started to destroy Hamas’ vast underground network of terror tunnels by flooding them with water from the Mediterranean Sea.
U.S. officials familiar with the IDF’s operations inside Gaza told The Wall Street Journal that the move is just one of several different methods that Israel is using to force the terrorists to the surface.
The news comes as large numbers of Hamas terrorists have been seen in recent days surrendering to Israel’s forces inside Gaza.
Hamas terrorists have used a significant portion of the aid that they received from foreign countries to build their tunnel network, which has been estimated to be hundreds of miles long.
The IDF’s flooding of the tunnels only started in recent days and is expected to potentially last for several weeks. The flooding began after Israel finished installing seven pumps and conducted some initial testing.
“Israel’s military said it was intensifying operations underground in northern Gaza and beneath the southern city of Khan Younis, one of Hamas’s last strongholds,” the report said. “The underground labyrinth remains one of Israel’s main challenges to achieving its goal of destroying Hamas’s military capabilities both in areas it controls above ground and those where it so far hasn’t operated. The tunnels under the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border for example, analysts say, are used by Hamas to smuggle most of its weapons into Gaza.”
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Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said this week Hamas was “on the verge of collapse” in areas throughout Gaza as it begins to run low on supplies, having to rely on stealing aid from Palestinian civilians to keep their terrorist activities going.