Iran Press/West Asia: In a report aired by Israeli Channel 12 on Saturday, unnamed Israeli officials and military officers highlighted that these tunnels have allowed Hamas to execute "an organized defensive battle" against Israeli forces.
"It's like a spider web; if you cut one tunnel, alternative tunnels will automatically appear, and this can continue," said one of the unnamed officials.
Another official echoed this sentiment, stating, "We still do not have a complete understanding of the tunnel network, and we lack a firm and absolute control over the entire tunnel project."
The report also noted that Hamas fighters have effectively used these tunnels to launch surprise attacks, disappearing underground only to strike from multiple locations simultaneously. These tunnels facilitate the movement of forces and logistical equipment throughout Gaza, suggesting that dismantling the network would require a prolonged and sustained military effort.
“When the ground invasion of the Strip began on October 27, 2023, the Israeli army encountered Hamas’s capability to conduct an organized defensive battle from underground,” an unnamed officer was quoted as saying.
Estimates suggest that Hamas has constructed more than 360 kilometers of underground passages in Gaza for defensive purposes. One of the primary objectives of Israel's offensive, initiated in October last year, was the destruction of this complex tunnel system. However, over the past nine months, Israel has admitted to its insufficient understanding of the network.
Further complicating matters, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Friday that the "Atlantis Project," an expensive Israeli military initiative to flood Gaza’s tunnels with seawater, was deemed a failure.
“It turns out that Atlantis is lost; it’s no longer in use, and nobody in the army can say what benefit, if any, was gained from this expensive project,” the report stated.
The conflict, which began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led resistance groups launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, was a response to decades of Israeli actions against Palestinians. Despite the prolonged offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has not achieved its goals in Gaza, while the death toll has risen to nearly 39,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
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