The IDF recognizes that it is using a radical solution, repeatedly mentioned since the start of the conflict.
The Israeli army admitted on Tuesday to sending "large volumes of water" into tunnels used by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip to "neutralize" them, ensuring that it did not compromise access to water. drinking water of the civilian population.
“Various tools have been developed to send large volumes of water into the tunnels (...),” the army said in a statement.
“This capacity has been professionally developed, including analysis of soil and pipe characteristics” in the affected areas to ensure there is no damage to groundwater, she said. clarified, referring to a method used only in places where it was “appropriate”.
500 tunnel descents destroyed according to IDF
Nicknamed “the Gaza metro” by the Israeli military, the maze of galleries dug by Hamas under the Gaza Strip was first used to circumvent the blockade imposed by Israel after Hamas took power in this territory in 2007. Hundreds of galleries have been dug under the border with Egyptian Sinai to move people, goods, weapons and ammunition between Gaza and the outside world.
After the war between Israel and Hamas in 2014, Hamas expanded the network, from which its fighters can emerge to fire their rockets towards Israeli soil.
In a study published on October 17, the Institute of Modern Warfare at the American Military Academy West Point mentions 1,300 galleries over 500 kilometers.
The Israeli army for its part claimed at the beginning of December to have discovered more than 800 tunnel descents, 500 of which were destroyed.
Also read “Conceivable but not very effective”: can the Israeli army try to flood the Hamas tunnels in Gaza?
In addition to the potentially deadly trap that the tunnels constitute for Israeli soldiers, several Israeli hostages released during the November truce had indicated that they had been held there.
The Israeli press had cited Israeli sources indicating that the army planned to flood the galleries with seawater pumped from the Mediterranean, which borders the small coastal territory.
The head of the army, Herzi Halevi, simply said that it was “a good idea”.
But some scientists and humanitarian officials indicated at the end of 2023 that they feared contamination of groundwater by salt water, with catastrophic consequences for Gazans' already precarious access to drinking water.
The Gaza Strip is between six and 12 kilometers wide, and the salinization of groundwater is already a scourge there, made worse by rising ocean levels.