To fight Hamas, Israel planning to flood tunnels in Gaza, claims report

In an attempt to hunt Hamas fighters, Israel has assembled a large system of pumps that may be used to flood the network of tunnels used by the Palestinian terror group under the Gaza Strip, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing US officials.

Around the middle of November, Israel’s army completed the set-up of at least five pumps about a mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp that could move thousands of cubic meters of water per hour, flooding the tunnels within weeks, the report said.

It was not clear whether Israel would consider using the pumps before all hostages were released, according to the news report.

It is believed that Israel has assembled a system of large pumps it could use to flood Hamas’s vast network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip with seawater, a tactic that could destroy the tunnels and drive the fighters from their underground refuge but also threaten Gaza’s water supply, U.S. officials said.

The Israel Defence Forces finished assembling large seawater pumps roughly one mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp around the middle of last month. Each of at least five pumps can draw water from the Mediterranean Sea and move thousands of cubic meters of water per hour into the tunnels, flooding them within weeks.

Hamas has previously said it has hidden captives in “safe places and tunnels”.

When asked about the report, a US official said it made sense for Israel to render the tunnels inoperable and that the country was exploring a range of ways to do that.

Israel’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal said an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) official declined to comment on the flooding plan but was quoted as saying: “The IDF is operating to dismantle Hamas’s terror capabilities in various ways, using different military and technological tools.”

Israel first informed the United States of the plan to flood tunnels in Gaza last month, the Wall Street Journal said, reporting that officials did not know how close Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was to carrying out the plan finally.

Israel has not made a final decision to go ahead or rule it out, the officials were cited as saying.