The Israeli army (IDF) confirmed that it had flooded some Hamas tunnels, the extensive network of underground tunnels used by the Palestinian group for surprise attacks, but also to move and hide weapons, goods and militiamen in the Gaza Strip. The hypothesis that the Israeli army flooded the tunnels discovered during the military invasion by pumping sea water inside them had already been circulating since the beginning of December, when it emerged thanks to a item of the Wall Street Journal: until now, however, the Israeli authorities had never explicitly confirmed it and they had prevented to the country’s media to discuss it.
The IDF said that several army units and Defense Ministry officials have developed “several tools to pump water into Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip” with the help of pumps and pipes, to destroy everything found inside them. The army said it had not flooded all the exposed tunnels, but refused to specify how many; he added that before proceeding with the operations they are carried out controls “professional and complete” estimates, also to ensure that the soil is not contaminated.
– Read also: What are the tunnels under the Gaza Strip