Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Israel starts pumping seawater into Hamas tunnels

Flooding shafts is one of several ways the IDF is destroying the network.

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist inside a tunnel in Beit Hanun, in the Gaza Strip, May 18, 2022. Photo by Attia Muhammed/Flash90.
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist inside a tunnel in Beit Hanun, in the Gaza Strip, May 18, 2022. Photo by Attia Muhammed/Flash90.

Israel’s military has started to pump seawater into Hamas’s terror tunnels, part of an operation to destroy an underground network dubbed “the Gaza metro,” U.S. officials briefed on the matter say.

Flooding tunnels with seawater from the Mediterranean is one of several methods the IDF is employing to destroy the underground network, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

At the start of the month, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said of the possibility of pumping seawater: “Any means which give us an advantage over the enemy, deprives it of this asset, is a means that we are evaluating using. This is a good idea, but I won’t comment on its specifics.”

“We are working—going from one tunnel to another, placing weapons there, and using a range of means to destroy this infrastructure, including through new ways soon,” said Halevi.

“There is no place where Hamas will be free from IDF’s offensive capabilities,” he said at the time.

Fire damaged more than 30 structures, destroyed 15 homes and 10 businesses, and forced the evacuation of some 100 families.
Jerusalem began cracking down on the Health Work Committees group following its involvement in the murder of 17-year-old Israeli teenager Rina Shnerb in 2019.
“I think we need to invest in Israel’s Arab society—in education, employment and infrastructure. If we don’t, we’ll be the ones who suffer,” the lawmaker told JNS.
Bar-Ilan University researchers reported that pregnant women living near more vegetation had lower levels of long-term stress hormones.
With the principal blocs separated by a handful of seats in most polls, the campaign could be decided less by movement between Netanyahu’s Likud and Eisenkot’s Yashar than by which smaller parties survive the 3.25% electoral threshold.