After months of rumors and half-reports, the IDF has officially confirmed yesterday: in order to deal with the Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip, a special project was initiated to inject seawater, in order to bring about the neutralization of the the tunnel and the people within. This is a first-rate engineering project, which requires the use of strong pumps and a solid pipeline – and the project was usually carried out in tunnels relativly close to the sea; in addition, before the implementation, the IDF had to check that the target tunnel was suitable for flooding such as this – both in terms of size (and ability to absorb such water flow), in terms of quality (If the tunnel has a good drainage system, for example, the sea water will not go very far) and the environment (if the sea water hits and damages groundwater, it will damage the drinking-water infrastructure of the Gaza population; in addition, in some areas there is a fear of land collapse and the creation of sinkholes).
This is not the first time in history that water has been used to destroy enemy tunnels. The Egyptians, for example, used a similar idea against Hamas smuggling tunnels under the ‘Philadelphi route’ a few years ago, using a mixture of water and sewage. But this is the first time in history that this type of a project, now known as the ‘Atlantis Plan’, is being carried out on such a scale – and it is certainly appropriate in relation to the historical precedent that has been slowly exposed under Gaza, of the construction of a terrorist tunnel system of hundreds of kilometers by the terrorist organization, to an extent unparalleled.
According to foreign media reports, the plan was partially successful where it was carried out by the IDF. It is important to remember that this is not an exclusive plan, but only partial; the IDF has other methods of handling tunnels, including emulsia (injection of explosives in a different state of accumulation), and, as recently seen in Khan Yunis, a ground entrance. “This is something quite special in the history of wars,” said Dan Goldphus, division 98 commander, “a maneuver on land and underground at the same time.” Indeed, it seems that in the face of an enemy that does not stop by any means, the IDF is forced to think outside the box, and to create history.
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