US officials told the Wall Street Journal on Monday that Israel has put together a big network of pumps that could be used to flood Hamas’s tunnels under the Gaza strip to get rid of the fighters. The story said that around the middle of November, Israel’s army finished setting up at least five pumps about a mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp. These pumps could move thousands of cubic meters of water per hour, which would flood the tunnels within weeks.
The story said it wasn’t clear if Israel would think about using the pumps before all the prisoners were freed. Hamas has said in the past that it has hidden prisoners in “safe places and tunnels.” If the US government was asked about the story, they said it made sense for Israel to make the tunnels useless and that they were looking into a number of ways to do that.
When asked for feedback, Israel’s defense ministry did not answer right away.
A Wall Street Journal report said that an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) official wouldn’t say anything about the flooding plan but did say, “The IDF is working to break down Hamas’s terror capabilities in a number of ways, using a range of military and technological tools.”
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/world/israels-attack-gaza/news/israel-considers-flooding-gaza-tunnels-seawater-wsj-3486316
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