(DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA) — An Israeli military engineer expressed admiration for what he characterized as the sophistication and comprehensiveness of the underground tunnel utilized by Hamas fighters and other Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip.
The underground tunnel employed by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters in Gaza is extensive and constitutes a crucial strategy in their response to Israeli military actions at present.
“We anticipated seeing this, but I didn’t expect these underground fortifications to be so robust, meaning they contain a lot of concrete, stairs, and numerous intersections within these bunkers,” stated the Israeli military engineer in an interview published by Newsweek on November 29.
“Of course, we (the Israeli military) don’t always enter them, but we examine them more closely, and it (the underground tunnel) is quite surprising.”
“I expect it (the underground tunnel) to be primitive, but instead, it is highly sophisticated,” said the Israeli military engineer to U.S. media outlet Newsweek in the interview.
The military engineer affirmed that these underground fortifications are crucial to Hamas and other Palestinian groups in Gaza.
“These underground tunnel are now the lifeline for Hamas and other fighter groups, posing a significant challenge to the Israeli military in their efforts to dismantle Palestinian fighter groups in Gaza,” said the engineer.
The underground tunnel in Gaza proliferated rapidly after 2007 following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip and Hamas’ success in winning local elections.
The Israeli military engineer explained that these underground tunnel, where their forces claim to have found hundreds of “entry points”, serve various purposes, including for defensive, offensive , smuggling weapons, and other goods.
A week before the temporary ceasefire agreement between the conflicting parties, Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades released a video showing their fighters installing explosives at the entrance of an underground tunnel in Beit Hanoun before the arrival of Israeli military engineering personnel.
When the Israeli military engineering personnel arrived at the entrance of the underground bunker, it was detonated, resulting in the death of four Israeli soldiers in the incident as confirmed by the Israeli military.
Due to the danger of entering these underground bunkers, Israeli military members informed Newsweek that they often choose to destroy the entrances rather than entering.
“We know that if we see an enemy, if we see someone firing from the underground bunker and then running into the bunker, the goal is to draw us to enter the bunker and pursue them.”
“We don’t want to play their game. We want to play our game,” said the Israeli military officer, adding that they choose to blow up the entrance of the underground bunker instead of entering and hunting down fighter members.
He also mentioned that even though the entrance to the underground tunnel is blown up, there is still a high likelihood that the Palestinian fighters are still alive.
“We actually don’t know how many Palestinian fighters we successfully eliminated,” said the Israeli military officer. —DSA
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