On the Gaza tunnels
The Gazans are adept at three things: propaganda, killing, and digging elaborate and extensive tunnels. In fact, their tunnel system is almost certainly the most elaborate in the world. But in that, they are helped along by geography/geology.
Here’s an in-depth (pun intended, I guess) look at the tunnels and why they are so easy to build and difficult to eradicate:
The unique conditions of the Gaza Strip in this context are also well known: its soft sandstone allows for relatively easy subterranean digging, in contrast to the hard limestone terrain in Lebanon and the West Bank. As a result, the IDF’s operations in these areas have had a very different character.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah’s use of subterranean infrastructure was substantially more limited. … [M]ost of Hezbollah’s “strategic” subterranean systems were limited in location and scope, and were largely known to Israeli intelligence. As a result, when the offensive phase of the campaign against Hezbollah began in September 2024, the Israeli Air Force destroyed most of these systems within hours, days, and a few weeks. … Thus, in the Lebanese arena, a decisive victory was achieved relatively quickly, primarily through the combination of air power and intelligence, against an adversary widely regarded as stronger and more dangerous than Hamas.
Indeed, the prolonged campaign in the Gaza Strip, now approaching two years, stems decisively from the challenge of the underground domain. Beyond the issue of the hostages, which significantly restricts IDF operations, the vast underground space in the Gaza Strip enables Hamas to shelter, hide, and disappear. From there, small guerrilla units of the organization emerge from concealed shafts embedded within the built or ruined urban landscape, set up ambushes, launch RPG rockets, and deploy or attach explosive devices. Despite all the experience and skills the IDF has acquired on the subject, there is currently no simple, practical way to neutralize this mode of warfare. Moreover, not only the prolonged nature of the fighting in the Gaza Strip reflects the challenge but also the difficulty in achieving a decisive outcome and the massive scale of forces required—including both regular and reserve brigades and divisions. These stem directly from the limited ability to contend with the subterranean threat. Lacking an effective solution, the IDF is left with little choice but to flood the area with a large number of forces and advance slowly and methodically as the default course of action.
Thus, the long duration of the campaign in the Gaza Strip, the difficulty in achieving a decisive outcome, and the immense scale of forces involved all stem directly from the underground challenge. …
The Viet Cong were the first to use subterranean networks extensively against the United States, which struggled to find an effective response. However, the Viet Cong’s tunnel system was likely only half the length of Gaza’s and ran mainly through uninhabited jungle terrain and not dense urban areas. In this sense, Gaza’s network is unique in both scale and implications—not only compared to Lebanon and the West Bank, but also globally.
Much more at the link.
Since the post-10/7 war began, the nature and extent of the Gazan tunnel system has been discussed a great deal. But I think many people are nevertheless unaware of how exceptionally extensive it is, and how it continues to be used by Hamas as above-ground Gaza becomes rubble. It remains a huge problem in Gaza and an enormous factor in the duration and difficulty of this war, and the author believes that it would probably be a threat to any group that would take over postwar.
The marines dealt with a tunnel system on Iwo, it’ll probably come to that.
Well…technically speaking there are relatively simple ways to deal with them, but such methods would be considered war crimes.
So THAT’s where all the aid money went. I’d been wondering.
Why can’t the tunnels be flooded with a foul smelling but non- lethal gas??
Egyptians floods the Gaza tunnels with water or poison gas from time to time, killing people, and forces people from their homes who are too close to the Gaza border or whose house conceals a tunnel. Not a peep out of legacy media.
The UN and the Europeans should be proud that the $$$ they donated to Hamas allowed the latter to build such a sophisticated system of tunnels.
And speaking of $$$; how is it that a bunch of Hamas leaders, who live in Qatar, are billionaires?? What business venture did they start that provided them such wealth?
To further Hamas efforts to survive and resurrect themselves back to fighting numbers, the UK, France, Australia, Ireland , Canada, etc. have now decided to recognize Palestine as a sovereign nation.
Safe to say that this new nation , which will have Hamas as their govt, will build an even better and more extensive network of tunnels.
Perhaps the presidents of these nations will be invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony upon completion of this new and far more extensive tunnel system.
Why is the USA a member of the UN??
I’m curious as fo where they put all the spoil from the digging. You’d think that there would be enough to be visible from space.
Not buying.
I saw a map of the tunnels the IDF knows about and is willing to allow to be published and my first reaction was “WOW!” I gotta figure there’s a LOT more there.
One thing that limits the IDF on what it can do to/ with the tunnels is there is still hope about recovering hostages.
We will come to “war crimes” Nonapod
@ JohnTyler > “Why is the USA a member of the UN??”
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
To some people.
Echoes of Stalingrad, where the Germans first bombed the city into rubble, but then found that the rubble provided an ideal space for Russian soldiers to maneuver in without being seen. One hopes the outcome is not similar, but there is the rather big difference that the Russians filtered millions of troops into the city to replace the millions whom the Germans killed or otherwise rendered hors de combat. The average lifespan of a new Russian soldier arriving in Stalingrad was measured in hours, not even days. One can speculate that the palestinians lack the same number of potentially available recruits. One hopes.
— JohnTyler
Because idealistic dreamers thought the end of World War II meant it was time for a world government to end warfare entirely, and more pragmatic dreamers saw the UNO as a tool to enforce peace by the victors of WW II (thus the permanent member mechanism of the UN Security Council). The Cold War and human nature put paid to those dreams in short order.
I don’t think America should withdraw from it. That would leave the diplomatic mechanism in place as a convenient tool to organize activity against America, since we would no longer have our SC veto. Instead we should defund as much of it as we can manage, and use to veto to protect our interests and our allies from governments trying to use the UNO as a tool against us. Marginalize it.
CaptainObvious,
There’s plenty of places to hide it. Better not have a pile of dirt if the IDF shows up!