In Gaza, 80% of the Hamas tunnel network remains intact after almost four months of the Israel-Hamas war and immense efforts of the Israel Defense Forces to destroy the warren, said The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, citing US and Israeli officials.
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Disabling the 300-mile tunnel system would hinder the Hamas terrorists' ability to hide and maneuver around the Strip's territory unexposed to Israeli fire as well as deny storage for weapons and ammunition and command-and-control centers for its leadership, Israel has previously stated.
The IDF has used multiple tactics in its effort to clear the tunnels, "including installing pumps to flood them with water from the Mediterranean, destroying them with airstrikes and liquid explosives, searching them with dogs and robots, destroying their entrances and raiding them with highly trained soldiers," noted the report.
"Hamas's strategy revolves around the tunnels – it is their center of gravity. They needed the tunnels to level the battlefield with the IDF," Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and officer in the Marine Corps and Central Intelligence Agency told WSJ.
"The tunnels are where Hamas planned [before Oct. 7] to wait out Israel's political will as Israel faced pressure for a ceasefire."
Meanwhile, recent reports indicate that the chances of a two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are higher than ever before since the November truce ended.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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