IDF blasts Army Radio into Gaza tunnels in bid to soothe hostages

After conquering a Hamas tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip, a group of Israeli soldiers went down it with some unusual gear in hand – not explosives, robot probes or pistols for close combat, but rather old-style, dial-operated transistor radios.

Their mission was to descend until the devices could no longer receive AM transmissions from Israel. That point, they found, was at about 10 to 12 meters in depth, generally the upper “stories” of Palestinian terrorists’ subterranean network.

The January 4 experiment was ordered by their commander at the behest of Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who had just expanded the country’s most popular broadcaster, Army Radio, from industry-standard FM into complementary AM channels.

AM’s greater range meant emergency updates would have a better chance of being heard by civilians in bomb shelters. Troops in Gaza would also benefit, as they were being allowed transistor radios to keep themselves informed while being asked to surrender their cellphones lest those be geolocated by Hamas.

The tunnel experiment dangled another possibility for a country tormented with worry for 132 people held hostage by Hamas-led gunmen in the enclave: reaching out to them with custom-composed, morale-raising Army Radio broadcasts.

“It suddenly occurred to me that maybe some of those hostages also had access to transistor radios,” Karhi tells Reuters. “If they had the means to hear their families’ voices it would have a huge value in terms of morale – and for their relatives, too.”