Seth J. Frantzman

To win, Israel must destroy the labyrinth of Hamas tunnels

Credit: Getty images

As Israeli forces continue to push into Gaza they face threats from Hamas terrorists who use a network of tunnels under the strip. This is referred to by Israel as a ‘metro’. The tunnel network is extensive and exists under civilian homes and streets.

In the brief ten-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021, Israel said it had struck 62 miles of these tunnels under Gaza. Today Hamas continues to use them. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke to IDF combat engineers this week and vowed that Israel has ‘unique solutions’ for destroying the tunnels and that Hamas members who remained in them would be eliminated. 

Avoiding detection by going underground is one way that a low-tech terror group can confront a more sophisticated adversary

Hamas has been using tunnels for many years. Today there are estimated to be up to 310 miles of them underneath Gaza, which is itself only 25 miles long and 5.5

Written by
Seth J. Frantzman

Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machine, Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

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