Israel begins pumping seawater in Hamas' tunnels in Gaza: Report

Israel has reportedly started pumping seawater into Hamas' complex tunnel system in Gaza as part of an extensive operation to destroy the underground network.

U.S. officials briefed on the Israel Defense Forces' plans told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday about the plan, which involves pumping seawater from the Mediterranean into the tunnels. 

Reports first emerged last week that Israel had finished assembling a pump system to flood the tunnels with the goal of forcing terrorists to the surface. The flooding started in recent days and could last for several weeks. 

The tunnels were used to smuggle weapons and ammunition from Egypt into Gaza, and experts are concerned that the terrorists may use the same routes to flee to Egypt, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank. 

Each tunnel costs an estimated $3 million to dig and they are fitted with electricity and telephone lines, according to the IDF.

The idea of flooding the tunnels is not new. Egypt flooded Gaza's tunnels to the Sinai with sewage in 2013, according to Business Insider. Egypt's military said in 2014 that it had destroyed nearly 1,400 smuggling tunnels, The Times of Israel reported at the time. The Egyptian military said that from 2015-2020, it destroyed more than 3,000 tunnels, some of which were nearly two miles long and 100 feet deep, according to The Jerusalem Post. 

Egypt was also accused of pumping toxic gas into the border tunnels, killing several men in 2019 and again in 2021.

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