2023-10-28 19:11:00
The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 22nd day on Saturday, was triggered by the unprecedented attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip. In retaliation, the Israeli army has since relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas since 2007, and besieged this cramped Palestinian territory where some 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded together.
Israel has announced for several days that it is preparing a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. But what would happen if this threat was carried out? We asked Elena Aoun, professor and researcher in international relations at UCLouvain. “The first element is that the human toll among the civilian population of Gaza risks being exponentially worse than what we have seen so far. Secondly, it is certain that on the surface, the Israeli army will have a superiority which no longer needs to be demonstrated. But on the other hand, the question arises of what would happen underground. In the famous tunnels that have been dug over the years by Palestinian fighters, by Hamas, etc.“, she explains.
“Underground Nightmare”
In a study published on October 17, the Institute of Modern Warfare at the US Military Academy West Point describes it as “underground nightmare“Hamas tunnels and evokes”a curse facing the Israeli army” for which “there is no perfect solution“.
“The size of the challenge in Gaza, where hundreds of kilometers of tunnels crisscross underground in this enclave, is completely unique“, writes the author of this study, John Spencer. “It’s a real underground city“, writes Mr. Spencer who speaks of 1,300 galleries over 500 km, under a cramped territory 41 km long by a width which varies from 6 to 12 km.
It is not certain that the equipment available to Israel […] could all be effective at this depth
The specialist we interviewed confirms the risk for the Israeli army of fighting underground. “The very nature of these tunnels and the very nature of an underground war could slightly reverse the balance of power, at least in part. It is true that the Israeli army is well equipped, but at the same time there is an intrinsic complexity, if only by the greater knowledge of this network of tunnels by Hamas fighters. It is not certain that the equipment available to Israel, whether robots, censors, radars, etc. could all be effective at this depth“, specifies Elena Aoun.
Israel file
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