As an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip looms in its war with Hamas, one of the greatest threats to both its troops and all those trapped in the seaside enclave is hidden underground.
FILE - Israeli soldiers walk through a tunnel discovered near the Israel-Gaza border Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. An extensive labyrinth of tunnels built by Hamas stretches across the dense neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip, hiding militants, their missile arsenal and the over 200 hostages they now hold after an unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Overnight on Saturday, the Israeli military said its warplanes struck 150 underground Hamas targets in northern Gaza, describing them as tunnels, combat spaces and other underground infrastructure. The strikes — what appeared to be Israel’s most significant bombardment of tunnels yet — came as it ramped up its ground operations in Gaza.
Yehiyeh Sinwar, Hamas’ political leader, claimed in 2021 that the militant group had 500 kilometers of tunnels. The Gaza Strip itself is only some 360 square kilometers , roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C. Ariel Bernstein, a former Israeli soldier who fought in that war, described urban combat in northern Gaza as a mix of “ambushes, traps, hideouts, snipers.”
Underlining how tough tunnels can be to destroy, America used a massive explosive against an Islamic State group tunnel system in Afghanistan in 2017 called “the mother of all bombs,”Yet in all those cases, advancing militaries did not face the challenge that Israel does now with Hamas’ tunnel system. The militant group holds some 200 hostages that it captured in the Oct. 7 assault, which also killed more than 1,400 people.confirmed suspicions that the militants had put hostages in the tunnels.
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