TEL AVIV, Israel — One tunnel within the Gaza Strip was once extensive sufficient for a most sensible Hamas legitimate to pressure a automotive inside of. Some other stretched just about 3 soccer fields lengthy and was once hidden underneath a health center. Beneath the home of a senior Hamas commander, the Israeli army discovered a spiral staircase resulting in a tunnel roughly seven tales deep.Those main points and new details about the tunnels, some made public by means of the Israeli army and documented by means of video and images, underscore why the tunnels had been thought to be a big risk to the Israeli army in Gaza even earlier than the conflict began.However Israeli officers and squaddies who’ve since been within the tunnels — in addition to present and previous U.S. officers with revel in within the area — say the scope, intensity and high quality of the tunnels constructed by means of Hamas have astonished them. Even probably the most equipment that Hamas used to construct the tunnels, seen in captured movies, has stunned the Israeli army.Join The Morning e-newsletter from the New York TimesThe Israeli army now believes there are way more tunnels below Gaza.In December, the community was once assessed to be an estimated 250 miles. Senior Israeli protection officers, who spoke at the situation of anonymity to talk about intelligence issues, are these days estimating the community is between 350 and 450 miles — bizarre figures for a territory that at its longest level is best 25 miles. Two of the officers additionally assessed there are with reference to 5,700 separate shafts main right down to the tunnels.The numbers may just now not be independently verified, and there are various estimates by means of Israeli officers for the larger scope of the tunnel community, in keeping with other intelligence. However the immense efforts of Hamas to militarize the enclave don’t seem to be in dispute; nor are the intelligence disasters of the Israeli army in underestimating the level and significance of the community to Hamas’ survival.In a gathering remaining January, a most sensible Israeli army legitimate mentioned the tunnels would now not also be a think about any long term conflict with Hamas on account of Israel’s army power, in line with a transcript of the dialogue reviewed by means of The New York Occasions.“Hamas has used the time and assets during the last 15 years to show Gaza right into a citadel,” mentioned Aaron Greenstone, a former CIA officer who has labored widely within the Center East.For the Israeli army, the tunnels are a subterranean nightmare and the core of Hamas’ skill to continue to exist. Each and every strategic function of Israel in Gaza is now related to wiping out the tunnels.“If you wish to damage the management and arsenal of Hamas, it’s important to damage the tunnels,” mentioned Daphné Richemond-Barak, a tunnel battle skilled at Reichman College in Israel. “It’s change into attached to each and every a part of the army missions.”Hamas has invested closely within the tunnels because it does now not have the assets or numbers to battle the Israeli army in a standard conflict. The gang makes use of the tunnels as army bases and arsenals, and is determined by them to transport its forces undetected and give protection to its most sensible commanders.One 2022 report confirmed Hamas budgeted $1 million at the tunnel doorways, underground workshops and different bills in Khan Younis.Israeli intelligence officers lately assessed that there have been about 100 miles of tunnels slightly below Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s greatest town, the place Israeli forces at the moment are in heavy combating. Yehia Sinwar, the army chief of Hamas in Gaza, had a house in Khan Younis.As well as, a 2015 file indicated that Hamas had spent greater than $3 million on tunnels all through Gaza, together with many constructed below civilian infrastructure and delicate places equivalent to colleges and hospitals, the Israeli army mentioned.The Israeli army mentioned it had discovered two forms of tunnels: ones utilized by commanders and others utilized by operatives. The commander tunnels are deeper and extra at ease, making an allowance for longer remains and use of ceramic tiles. The opposite tunnels are extra spartan and frequently shallower.An Israeli legitimate mentioned the army would possibly have spent a yr finding a unmarried tunnel, however now the bottom marketing campaign has supplied a trove of details about Gaza’s underground community.The Israeli army has tested computer systems utilized by Hamas operatives in command of tunnel development to seek out the underground passageways, a senior Israeli legitimate mentioned. Some paperwork captured within the conflict also are proving important. The Israeli army has discovered lists of the households that “hosted” the tunnel entrances of their personal properties.In a single case, Israeli squaddies situated a map of tunnels in Beit Hanoun, a town in northern Gaza, and used it to seek out and damage tunnels. Even with this battlefield intelligence, the combating in Gaza across the tunnels has been grueling. The Israeli army reviews that almost 190 squaddies were killed and about 240 severely wounded because the flooring marketing campaign began. However the army has now not disclosed the collection of useless and wounded in reference to the tunnel battle.One soldier, talking at the situation of anonymity for protection causes, mentioned he oversaw the destruction of about 50 tunnels in Beit Hanoun. They all had been booby-trapped, he mentioned. The soldier, an officer within the fight engineers, mentioned his unit had discovered bombs hidden in partitions and a large explosive tool that was once hard-wired to be remotely activated.The soldier, who was once a reservist and has since been discharged, mentioned the tool were made in a manufacturing unit and had a serial quantity on it. If it had long gone off, the bomb would have killed anyone within the tunnel and immediately out of doors it, he mentioned.Hamas launched a video in November appearing the way it lured a gaggle of 5 Israeli squaddies to a tunnel front in Beit Hanoun after which used a roadside bomb to kill the warriors.Richemond-Barak mentioned Hamas had imported the strategy from Syrian rebels who killed dozens of presidency troops in a tunnel assault in 2014 in Aleppo.On Jan. 8, Israeli squaddies took newshounds to look 3 tunnel shafts in central Gaza — one inside of a one-story farm construction at the outskirts of Bureij, the second one inside of a civilian steelworks at the fringe of Maghazi and the 3rd inside of a shed close to the steelworks.The shaft within the steelworks was once the inner most and maximum subtle. It descended kind of 30 yards and was once fitted with some more or less elevator. The warriors mentioned it was once used to move munitions portions that had been molded within the steelworks. A bucket of shells or rocket heads lay close by. The warriors mentioned the shells had been in keeping with a template of a yellow U.S.-made mortar shell inscribed with the phrases “20 mm mortar shell; Lot 1-2008.”The warriors didn’t permit newshounds into the shaft, bringing up the chance of explosions, however mentioned Hamas would raise the munitions portions into the tunnel to move them to every other a part of the tunnel community, the place they’d be fitted with explosives.The tunnel was once mentioned to result in a close-by shed produced from corrugated iron. The newshounds had been escorted to that shed, the place they noticed 10 huge rockets that had been kind of 3 yards lengthy and painted olive inexperienced. The rockets had been contained in lengthy rectangular cages, in all probability used to move them.The warriors mentioned the rockets had a variety of kind of 60 miles. A shaft within the flooring led underground, but it surely was once unclear the place the shaft resulted in, or how deep it was once. It seemed shallower than the primary shaft.The brand of the Qassam Brigades, the army wing of Hamas, was once caught to a wall.Later, the Israeli military printed pictures and video of the shafts and different close by amenities. A Occasions photographer documented the army infrastructure, too.The warriors additionally took newshounds to look a 3rd tunnel shaft in a one-story farm construction in Bureij, kind of 1 mile to the north, surrounded by means of farmland. They mentioned the shaft were hidden in the back of a locked door, which were blown off its hinges. The newshounds had been once more now not allowed to go into the tunnel.Out of doors, kind of 100 yards away, army bulldozers seemed to have unearthed a part of the tunnel main from the farm construction. It was once kind of 5 yards beneath the skin, arched in form and extensive sufficient for one individual to go very easily.Hamas has stepped forward its skill to hide the tunnels, however the senior legitimate mentioned the Israeli army had discovered one of the vital crew’s working fashions. The legitimate referred to as it the “triangle.” Each time the Israeli army unearths a college, a health center or a mosque, squaddies know they may be able to be expecting to find an underground tunnel gadget underneath it, the legitimate mentioned.Destroying the tunnels isn’t a very easy activity, the legitimate mentioned. They want to be mapped, checked for hostages and now not simply broken however made irreparable. Fresh makes an attempt to demolish the tunnels by means of flooding them with seawater have failed.The legitimate estimated it would take years to disable the tunnel gadget.c.2024 The New York Occasions Corporate
