Army officials say destroying tunnels gives IDF ‘freedom of action,’ ground forces needed for job

The IDF believes that eliminating Hamas’s tunnel network will enable a decisive victory over the terror group, but that it can only be done by ground forces.

The terror group has a vast underground network, which before the ground offensive in Gaza theoretically enabled Hamas operatives to move from the north of the Strip to its south almost exclusively via the tunnels.

Taking away the tunnels has given the IDF “freedom of action” in Gaza, military officials say.

In Khan Younis, where the 98th Division operated for 128 days earlier this year, some 70 kilometers’ (43 miles’) worth of tunnels were demolished.

In contrast, during an operation to recover the bodies of five hostages last week, the division was able to reach the tunnel where the remains were hidden by Hamas and recover them within 24 hours, and later wrap up the entire raid within eight days.

In another recent raid carried out by the 98th Division, in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, troops demolished eight major tunnels in less than two weeks, before withdrawing. An earlier offensive in Shejaiya lasted several months and saw much heavier IDF losses.

The recent fast and effective raids, military officials say, would not have been possible without the previous lengthy operations there, which took out most of Hamas’s major tunnel networks there and has ostensibly impeded attempts by the terror group to regroup and defend against future IDF actions.

According to the IDF, Hamas has used the tunnels for residing, surviving, and moving about in Gaza — including to launch attacks on troops.

There have been very few gunfights between IDF troops and Hamas gunmen inside the tunnels. Instead, Israeli troops use various methods to surprise the terror operatives and kill them from a distance, or the operatives end up fleeing through the underground network.

The IDF releases a video showing a gunman being killed by an explosive device that troops managed to push into a tunnel.

Additionally, the IDF prefers to reach the tunnel with ground forces to investigate them and later destroy them, as airstrikes have proven to have been ineffective in fully demolishing underground passages in some cases. Earlier in the war, the IDF was not entering the tunnels at all, but only demolishing them once it was confirmed no hostages were held there.

The IDF also says it has improved in locating Hamas’s tunnels but is unlikely to find every last one. According to the military, it has managed to find new tunnels by interrogating captured terror operatives, as well as searching areas where rockets were launched from or gunmen attacked troops.