The reporters in Israel and GAza have written about the vast underground complex developed by HAMAS over decades of occupation of Gaza. Much of the terrain along the border with Israel is plain, hilly ground; beneath is a network of inter-connected tunnels, many of which extended under the border itself into Israel. The IDF has known of their existence, and has a unit especially trained to enter these networks.
These tunnels also pose significant challenges: many are under well known civilian institutions-hospitals and schools. HAMAS uses information about Jews and their opinion about human life: life is worth protecting. HAMAS ' opinion is the opposite: life is expendable, no matter. Hence, tunnels under hospitals to give pause to the IDF.
Tunnels are not new: after the development of airpower, the counter was to build hardened targets difficult to penetrate, difficult to locate, and expensive to destroy. Case in point: in Vietnam, US forces were slow to respond to the evidence that Viet Cong and NVA were using tunnels to exist beyond the reach of troops and aircraft. For years many Vietnamese civilians lived exclusively below ground. Just north of the DMZ, near the South China Sea, hundreds of villagers lived in tunnels.
During WW II, many Nazi fortifications were hardened positions almost impervious to aerial attacks. Years in the making, these positions offered costly places to expend men and munitions. (See Ste. Malo in "All the Light One Cannot See").
So, the IDF will have an answer to this 'Tunneling" problem. I would offer that these tunnels will be rendered uninhabitable for humans sooner rather than later. It will be costly; but cost is not a factor when fighting for your life.
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| Tunnel in Ste. Malo Nazi Fort of WW II |
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