Fighting in densely populated areas and moving underground could strip Israel of some advantages
, one of the greatest threats to its troops and the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped inside the seaside enclave is buried deep underground.
He warned: “They get to choose the time of the engagement – you can’t see them but they can see you.” When Israel and Egypt imposed a punishing blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007, the militant group expanded construction of its tunnel network to smuggle in weapons and other contraband from Egypt.
Since 2004, the Israeli military’s Samur, or “Weasels”, detachment has focused on locating and destroying tunnels, sometimes with remote-controlled robots. Those going inside carry oxygen, masks and other gear. Ariel Bernstein, a former Israeli soldier who fought in that war, described urban combat in northern Gaza as a mix of “ambushes, traps, hideouts, snipers”.
US forces fighting the Vietnam War struggled to clear the 120km network known as the Cu Chi tunnels, in which American soldiers faced tight corners, booby traps and sometimes pitch-dark conditions in the outskirts of what was then Ho Chi Minh City, South Vietnam. Even relentless B-52 bombing never destroyed the tunnels. Nor did Russian strikes on the Ukrainian steel mill in 2022.
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