Gaël BRANCHEREAU
Fri, December 15, 2023
In a photo taken under Israeli army supervision, a soldier stands in what the Israeli army says is a tunnel dug by Hamas militants inside the Al-Shifa hospital complex (Ahikam SERI)
Israel has reportedly started to test a plan to flood Hamas's sprawling tunnel network, but experts say it is a dangerous option that poses huge risks to Gaza's besieged civilians.
The military is determined to destroy the tunnels after Hamas's October 7 attack in southern Israel, and army chief Herzi Halevi has suggested pumping water into them is "a good idea".
AFP takes a look at Hamas's tunnel network and Israel's bid to destroy it.
- 'Gaza metro' -
Dubbed "the Gaza metro" by the Israeli military, there were 1,300 tunnels over 500 kilometres (310 miles) in Gaza at the start of the war in October, according to a study from US military academy West Point.
The maze of tunnels was initially used to bypass Israel's devastating blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas came to power in 2007, allowing the smuggling of people, goods and weaponry in and out of Egypt.
It extended the network after the 2014 Israel-Hamas war and uses them to emerge across Gaza to launch rocket attacks on Israel.
- Since October 7 -
Since entering Gaza in October, the Israeli military has found that the tunnel network is "even more extensive and deeper than they expected," Raphael Cohen, military expert for the US-based Rand Corporation, told AFP.
The Israeli army has found more than 800 tunnel shafts, 500 of which have been destroyed, it said in December.
It claimed the shafts were in civilian areas of the densely-populated territory, including schools, mosques and playgrounds.
In November the Israeli army sparked outcry when it stormed the Al-Shifa hospital, claiming to have found a 55-metre tunnel in its basement.
Israel shared footage which it said proved hostages had been held there, which Hamas denied.
- Hostages -
Israel estimates that 250 people were taken as hostages into Gaza in the October 7 attack, which Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Its retaliatory offensive has left much of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 18,700 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Several of the 105 hostages freed during a week-long truce that ended on December 1 described being held captive in the tunnels.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that the bodies of two hostages were found in the "underground infrastructure" in Gaza.
- Destroying the tunnels -
The Israeli army has not said exactly how it plans to destroy or block the tunnels in the small coastal territory.
But Israeli media reports that the army is leaning towards flooding the tunnels with seawater pumped from the Mediterranean.
There have been successful tests, public broadcaster Channel 11 reported Thursday.
But Rand's Cohen told AFP there are always "second-order consequences" with such tactics.
"There's no good way of destroying a tunnel without affecting the infrastructure above ground," he said.
Hamas doubts Israel's ability to destroy the tunnels.
"Those tunnels were built by well-trained and educated engineers, and they have considered any kind of attacks that may happen including bombing and water," senior Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan told a press conference on Thursday.
- Eco-hazard -
The narrow Gaza Strip is only between six and 12 kilometres (about 3.7 to 7.5 miles) wide and the territory's water tables were already facing a huge problem from becoming too salty, worsened by rising sea levels.
That adds to a chronically faulty wastewater system and the "uncontrolled used of pesticides and herbicides in intensive agricultural zones," said Eilon Adar, from the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Combined, these factors have "had very serious consequences on Gaza's water quality," Adar told AFP.
gab/lcm/rsc/er
Israel is testing out flooding the Hamas tunnels. Here’s what it could look like scaled up
Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN
Fri, December 15, 2023
Seven weeks into Israel’s ground operation in Gaza, one of the key challenges facing the Israeli military is the labyrinth of Hamas tunnels that it says spans the entirety of the Strip.
In an effort to destroy the underground network, Israel has begun flooding some of Gaza’s tunnels with seawater, a US official told CNN on Tuesday, adding that the Israelis are “carefully testing out” the method “on a limited basis.”
If successful, flooding could be ramped up to degrade the tunnel network on a larger scale.
The method, however, is difficult and controversial. Even if implemented with sufficient amounts of water at high enough pressure, it may prove only partially successful. It also risks contaminating freshwater supplies and damaging whatever infrastructure remains on the surface.
For the Israeli government, it also risks killing hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, many of whom are believed to be underground.
The Israelis are unsure whether the method will work, the American official said, but they assured the US that they are being careful to only test it in tunnels where they do not believe hostages are being held.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.
A spokesperson for Hamas on Thursday said the group had built its tunnels to withstand possible attempts to pump water into them.
“The tunnels were built by well-trained and educated engineers who considered all possible attacks from the occupation, including pumping water,” Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan told a news conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
The tunnels however have also acted as an economic lifeline for Gaza’s residents, transporting people, goods and sometimes even American fast food amid a 17-year blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt.
An Israeli soldier stands in an underground tunnel in Gaza City on November 22.
- Victor R. Caivano/AP
A tool of warfare
Tunnels have historically been used as a tool of warfare. They were used by the French in the interwar period, by al Qaeda in the mountains of Afghanistan and by the Viet Cong in the jungles of Southeast Asia.
Hamas’ tunnels are unique, however. They are “very innovative in their depth, in their sophistication, in their mining, in their trapping,” said Danny Orbach, a military historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The subterranean structure is allegedly built under most of the Gaza Strip – a densely populated territory that is home to more than 2 million people – and by some accounts reaches a couple of hundred feet underground.
Hamas’ tunnels can be large enough to fit adult fighters, weaponry, goods and even cars, according to experts and footage released by the group. Some are reinforced with thick cement walls or are separated by metal doors, and not all of them are connected, experts say.
The scale of the Israeli military’s tests is unclear: how much water and how much pressure it is using to flood the tunnels it or even which tunnels it is targeting.
For the operation to succeed, the pressure with which the water is pumped into the tunnels would have to be high enough to destroy not only the cement walls, but also the thick, metal doors separating some of them.
At the very least, Orbach says, the flooding operation could force Hamas militants to move within the tunnels, which would aid Israeli intelligence in identifying militants and possibly hostages.
There will likely be complications
The method of shutting down tunnels by flooding them isn’t new for Israel or Gaza.
In an effort to shut some of the tunnels allegedly built by Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border, the IDF in 2018 flooded them with cement, which ended up spilling out onto the surface in the southern Lebanese village above the structure.
Similarly, Egypt in 2013 began flooding tunnels running underneath its shared border with Gaza, using seawater, sewage water and cement to halt what it said was the smuggling of weapons by Islamist insurgents from the Strip into its Sinai Peninsula.
The water that flooded the tunnels rose to the surface, destroying crops, contaminating fresh water supplies and risking the spread of disease, Palestinian factions in Gaza later said.
In 2021, Hamas claimed to have built 500 kilometers (311 miles) of tunnels under Gaza. To put that in perspective, the Gaza Strip is just 41 kilometers long and up to 12 kilometers wide. CNN is unable to verify Hamas’ claims.
The Israeli military said this month that it destroyed at least 500 tunnel shafts in Gaza and located more than 800 around the Palestinian enclave. The IDF said last week that many of the tunnel shafts “were located in civilian areas” and inside civilian structures.
But the flooding process could have a devastating impact on the territory, depending on how it’s done.
Flooding tunnels underneath populated areas risks damaging the infrastructure that remains intact in the territory. It also risks contaminating the source of its freshwater, experts said.
Israeli soldiers stand near the opening to a tunnel in Gaza City on November 22.
- Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
“I see one problem with seawater (flooding) for example,” Orbach said. “Gaza is a very sandy topography. That means that seawater can leak down and destroy the aquifers, the drinking water.”
The territory’s only freshwater resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is already being increasingly depleted by over-extraction and contaminated by sewage and seawater infiltration, according to Amnesty International.
The war has significantly curtailed access to drinking water, with aid agencies warning that Palestinians are being forced to drink dirty or salty water to quench their thirst, increasing risks of waterborne diseases.
If the entire network of tunnels is flooded, buildings on top of them could also collapse, Orbach said, adding that the damage could be extensive because so many of them are under civilian infrastructure.
The goal of the flooding, however, may not be to completely destroy the tunnels at this time, some experts said.
“Because the tunnels are so extensive and because so many of them are dug under infrastructure, buildings and schools and what not, there is a desire to incapacitate them in the moment, even if it doesn’t fully destroy them,” said Matthew Levitt, director of the Reinhard program on counterterrorism and intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The Israelis could work with a post-war governing body in Gaza about completely dismantling the tunnel network, he added.
“I imagine there is a consideration of how much seawater is necessary to make a tunnel unusable, as opposed to putting people’s lives at risk,” Levitt said, referring to the hostages believed to still be underground in Gaza.
“I think people have a vision of flooding the tunnels as pumping so much water in that the entire tunnel is without oxygen and just filled with water,” he said, “and I imagine that is not the case.”
Hostages may be in the tunnels
The most pressing concern for most Israelis today is the dozens of hostages still in Gaza, with many believed to be held underground.
The Israeli government is under intense public pressure to retrieve the hostages alive.
Leaked audio recordings of a meeting between freed hostages and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this month revealed anger at the prospect of flooding the tunnels.
A freed female abductee whose husband remains in captivity is heard on one recording as saying: “And you are talking about washing the tunnels with sea water? You are shelling the route of tunnels in the exact area where they are,” referring to heavy bombardment above of the tunnels.
“You put politics above the return of the kidnapped,” the woman adds. Israel believes there are 132 hostages still in Gaza – of whom 112 are thought to be alive, while 20 are believed to be dead, the prime minister’s office told CNN Friday.
Some of the hostages released by Hamas in October spoke about the tunnel system, describing the structure as a spiderweb.
Adina Moshe, who was dragged from her safe room in Israel and taken to Gaza on October 7th, was forced into tunnels five stories underground, according to her nephew Eyal Nouri.
“The bottom line is that Hamas invested tremendous time and money in this infrastructure, which is not for the benefit of the people in the Gaza Strip,” Levitt said, adding that from Israel’s perspective, it remains one of the most important military-critical infrastructure targets. “So, by one means or another, one can certainly expect that Israelis are going to be looking to disable the Hamas tunnel system.”
CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali, Joshua Berlinger, Natasha Bertrand and Donald Judd contributed to this report.
“I see one problem with seawater (flooding) for example,” Orbach said. “Gaza is a very sandy topography. That means that seawater can leak down and destroy the aquifers, the drinking water.”
The territory’s only freshwater resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is already being increasingly depleted by over-extraction and contaminated by sewage and seawater infiltration, according to Amnesty International.
The war has significantly curtailed access to drinking water, with aid agencies warning that Palestinians are being forced to drink dirty or salty water to quench their thirst, increasing risks of waterborne diseases.
If the entire network of tunnels is flooded, buildings on top of them could also collapse, Orbach said, adding that the damage could be extensive because so many of them are under civilian infrastructure.
The goal of the flooding, however, may not be to completely destroy the tunnels at this time, some experts said.
“Because the tunnels are so extensive and because so many of them are dug under infrastructure, buildings and schools and what not, there is a desire to incapacitate them in the moment, even if it doesn’t fully destroy them,” said Matthew Levitt, director of the Reinhard program on counterterrorism and intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The Israelis could work with a post-war governing body in Gaza about completely dismantling the tunnel network, he added.
“I imagine there is a consideration of how much seawater is necessary to make a tunnel unusable, as opposed to putting people’s lives at risk,” Levitt said, referring to the hostages believed to still be underground in Gaza.
“I think people have a vision of flooding the tunnels as pumping so much water in that the entire tunnel is without oxygen and just filled with water,” he said, “and I imagine that is not the case.”
Hostages may be in the tunnels
The most pressing concern for most Israelis today is the dozens of hostages still in Gaza, with many believed to be held underground.
The Israeli government is under intense public pressure to retrieve the hostages alive.
Leaked audio recordings of a meeting between freed hostages and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this month revealed anger at the prospect of flooding the tunnels.
A freed female abductee whose husband remains in captivity is heard on one recording as saying: “And you are talking about washing the tunnels with sea water? You are shelling the route of tunnels in the exact area where they are,” referring to heavy bombardment above of the tunnels.
“You put politics above the return of the kidnapped,” the woman adds. Israel believes there are 132 hostages still in Gaza – of whom 112 are thought to be alive, while 20 are believed to be dead, the prime minister’s office told CNN Friday.
Some of the hostages released by Hamas in October spoke about the tunnel system, describing the structure as a spiderweb.
Adina Moshe, who was dragged from her safe room in Israel and taken to Gaza on October 7th, was forced into tunnels five stories underground, according to her nephew Eyal Nouri.
“The bottom line is that Hamas invested tremendous time and money in this infrastructure, which is not for the benefit of the people in the Gaza Strip,” Levitt said, adding that from Israel’s perspective, it remains one of the most important military-critical infrastructure targets. “So, by one means or another, one can certainly expect that Israelis are going to be looking to disable the Hamas tunnel system.”
CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali, Joshua Berlinger, Natasha Bertrand and Donald Judd contributed to this report.
Israel finds large tunnel adjacent to Gaza border, raising new questions about prewar intelligence
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers exit a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, speaks to the media in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARIEL SCHALIT and JULIA FRANKEL
Updated Sun, December 17, 2023
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military said Sunday it has discovered a large tunnel shaft in Gaza close to what was once a busy crossing into Israel, raising new questions about how Israeli surveillance missed such conspicuous preparations by Hamas for the militants' deadly Oct. 7 assault.
The entryway to the tunnel is just a few hundred meters from the heavily fortified Erez crossing and a nearby Israeli military base.
The military said that it stretches for more than four kilometers (2½ miles), links up with a sprawling tunnel network across Gaza and is wide enough for cars to pass through. The army said Sunday that the tunnel facilitated the transit of vehicles, militants and supplies in preparation for the Oct. 7 attack.
That day, militants used a rocket-propelled grenade to break past the portion of wall close to the Erez crossing and stormed the base, killing at least three soldiers and kidnapping some back to Gaza, the army said. It was one of several places along the border wall where militants easily blew past Israel's security defenses, entered Israeli territory and killed around 1,200 people and took about 240 others hostage.
The unprecedented attack triggered a devastating war that has raged for more than 10 weeks and claimed more than 18,000 lives in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel says the destruction of Hamas' tunnel network is a major objective and that much of the underground network runs beneath schools, hospitals and residential areas.
Israel's military, intelligence and political officials have come under heavy criticism for failing to detect the attack ahead of time.
Maj. Nir Dinar, a military spokesperson, said that Israeli security services didn't know about the tunnel before Oct. 7 because Israel's border defenses only detected tunnels meant to enter Israel.
“As far as I know, this tunnel doesn’t cross from Gaza into Israel and stops within 400 meters from the border, which means the indicators won’t indicate that a tunnel is being built,” Dinar said. He added that the entrance, a circular cement opening leading to a cavernous passageway, was located under a garage, hiding it from Israeli drones and satellite images.
While the military was aware that Hamas had an extensive tunnel network, Dinar said they didn't think the militants would be able to carry out their plans for a large-scale attack.
“It’s no surprise that this was the Hamas strategy all along,” Dinar said. "The surprise is that they have succeeded and the size of this tunnel … was really shocking.”
The Erez crossing, a fortress-like facility that processed the movement of Palestinians into Israel for work, medical care and transit to neighboring Jordan, held great symbolic value for Hamas. The massive crossing was protected by security cameras and military patrols and the adjacent military base. The crossing suffered heavy damage on Oct. 7 and hasn't reopened.
The army said its special “Yahalom” unit, which specializes in tunnel warfare, has worked to excavate the tunnel since it was first detected. They say they've found weapons inside.
"At this point, this is the biggest tunnel in Gaza," Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, told reporters in a tour of the tunnel's entrance on Friday.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Hagari said troops had discovered at least two other “city-sized” tunnels of similar in scope, which they are still mapping.
“This was a flagship project that was waiting, finished and ready,” Hagari told a news conference. He noted that tunnel was in use during the war and that Israeli soldiers had killed Hamas militants inside the tunnel.
The army also showed reporters soldiers' barracks at the nearby base that it said were set ablaze by the militants. They looked like the ashes of a furnace, with blackened walls and smelted bunks. The military announced Friday that it had recovered in Gaza the bodies of two soldiers who were working at the base on Oct. 7.
Dinar, who visited the tunnel Friday, said it was twice the height and three times the width of other tunnels found in Gaza. He said it is equipped with ventilation and electricity and dives 50 meters underground in some points. He said it was clear that millions of dollars as well as a great deal of fuel and workforce had been needed to build and sustain the tunnel.
Hagari said the military planned to destroy the tunnel and continue to “hunt" militants hiding in others.
“We will hunt them even if we need to go down to the tunnels,” Hagari said. “We also need to do it with attention to the rescue of our hostages and the understanding that maybe some of them are in the tunnels.”
Updated Sun, December 17, 2023
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military said Sunday it has discovered a large tunnel shaft in Gaza close to what was once a busy crossing into Israel, raising new questions about how Israeli surveillance missed such conspicuous preparations by Hamas for the militants' deadly Oct. 7 assault.
The entryway to the tunnel is just a few hundred meters from the heavily fortified Erez crossing and a nearby Israeli military base.
The military said that it stretches for more than four kilometers (2½ miles), links up with a sprawling tunnel network across Gaza and is wide enough for cars to pass through. The army said Sunday that the tunnel facilitated the transit of vehicles, militants and supplies in preparation for the Oct. 7 attack.
That day, militants used a rocket-propelled grenade to break past the portion of wall close to the Erez crossing and stormed the base, killing at least three soldiers and kidnapping some back to Gaza, the army said. It was one of several places along the border wall where militants easily blew past Israel's security defenses, entered Israeli territory and killed around 1,200 people and took about 240 others hostage.
The unprecedented attack triggered a devastating war that has raged for more than 10 weeks and claimed more than 18,000 lives in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel says the destruction of Hamas' tunnel network is a major objective and that much of the underground network runs beneath schools, hospitals and residential areas.
Israel's military, intelligence and political officials have come under heavy criticism for failing to detect the attack ahead of time.
Maj. Nir Dinar, a military spokesperson, said that Israeli security services didn't know about the tunnel before Oct. 7 because Israel's border defenses only detected tunnels meant to enter Israel.
“As far as I know, this tunnel doesn’t cross from Gaza into Israel and stops within 400 meters from the border, which means the indicators won’t indicate that a tunnel is being built,” Dinar said. He added that the entrance, a circular cement opening leading to a cavernous passageway, was located under a garage, hiding it from Israeli drones and satellite images.
While the military was aware that Hamas had an extensive tunnel network, Dinar said they didn't think the militants would be able to carry out their plans for a large-scale attack.
“It’s no surprise that this was the Hamas strategy all along,” Dinar said. "The surprise is that they have succeeded and the size of this tunnel … was really shocking.”
The Erez crossing, a fortress-like facility that processed the movement of Palestinians into Israel for work, medical care and transit to neighboring Jordan, held great symbolic value for Hamas. The massive crossing was protected by security cameras and military patrols and the adjacent military base. The crossing suffered heavy damage on Oct. 7 and hasn't reopened.
The army said its special “Yahalom” unit, which specializes in tunnel warfare, has worked to excavate the tunnel since it was first detected. They say they've found weapons inside.
"At this point, this is the biggest tunnel in Gaza," Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, told reporters in a tour of the tunnel's entrance on Friday.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Hagari said troops had discovered at least two other “city-sized” tunnels of similar in scope, which they are still mapping.
“This was a flagship project that was waiting, finished and ready,” Hagari told a news conference. He noted that tunnel was in use during the war and that Israeli soldiers had killed Hamas militants inside the tunnel.
The army also showed reporters soldiers' barracks at the nearby base that it said were set ablaze by the militants. They looked like the ashes of a furnace, with blackened walls and smelted bunks. The military announced Friday that it had recovered in Gaza the bodies of two soldiers who were working at the base on Oct. 7.
Dinar, who visited the tunnel Friday, said it was twice the height and three times the width of other tunnels found in Gaza. He said it is equipped with ventilation and electricity and dives 50 meters underground in some points. He said it was clear that millions of dollars as well as a great deal of fuel and workforce had been needed to build and sustain the tunnel.
Hagari said the military planned to destroy the tunnel and continue to “hunt" militants hiding in others.
“We will hunt them even if we need to go down to the tunnels,” Hagari said. “We also need to do it with attention to the rescue of our hostages and the understanding that maybe some of them are in the tunnels.”
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers exit a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, speaks to the media in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza to retaliate for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
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