Hamas tunnels

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks to the press from southern Israel, December 5, 2023. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

IDF chief: Flooding Gaza tunnels with seawater ‘a good idea’; Khan Younis surrounded

Halevi says military moving to ‘3rd phase’ of ground offensive, while working to prevent harm to Strip’s civilians; IDF fighting ‘justified war’ and ‘the world enables us to do so’

Soldiers guard the entrance to a Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip, in a handout photo published November 9, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

December 5, 2023, 10:35 pm

Flooding Hamas tunnels could harm Gaza’s freshwater for generations, warns academic

Experts call on defense establishment to carefully weigh environmental impacts of reported plan to flush terrorists out of vast underground network

By Sue Surkes

December 5, 2023, 9:11 pm

IDF chief: Flooding Gaza tunnels with seawater ‘a good idea’; Khan Younis surrounded

Halevi says military moving to ‘3rd phase’ of ground offensive, while working to prevent harm to Strip’s civilians; IDF fighting ‘justified war’ and ‘the world enables us to do so’

By Emanuel Fabian

IDF troops operate in northern Gaza near the mouth of a Hamas tunnel in this handout photo released on November 23, 2023. (IDF)

December 5, 2023, 5:26 am

Israel said to set up pumps in Gaza for flooding Hamas tunnels with seawater

Wall Street Journal says IDF has yet to decide on whether to go ahead with plan to flood terror group’s subterranean passages and hideaways, with opinions mixed in US

By ToI Staff

Israel Defense Forces troops operating in the Gaza Strip in a photo released for publication on December 3, 2023 (Israel Defense Forces)

December 3, 2023, 2:50 pm

IDF says 800 tunnels discovered in Gaza op, 500 destroyed or sealed

Military says hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, many of which link Hamas’s ‘strategic assets,’ eliminated; IDF Arabic spokesperson urges Shejaiya battalion to surrender

By Emanuel Fabian and Agencies

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to troops of the Navy's Shayetet 13 commando unit, November 23, 2023. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

November 23, 2023, 10:38 pm

Hamas commander killed ahead of truce; Gallant: War will resume for at least 2 months

IDF to hold northern Gaza positions during pause in fighting; Nahal troops in Jabaliya find Hamas tunnel in mosque, rocket launchers next to homes; Shifa Hospital director detained

By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

An image grab from a file handout video released by the Hamas Media Office shows doctor Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, giving a press briefing on November 1, 2023, regarding the repercussions of fuel shortages on the hospital. (AFP Photo/HO/Hamas Media Office)

November 23, 2023, 11:41 am

IDF arrests Gaza’s Shifa Hospital head, sends him for questioning as terror suspect

Mohammad Abu Salmiya nabbed while evacuating to the south via humanitarian corridor; Israel says hospital ‘under his direct management’ served as Hamas terror HQ

By Agencies and ToI Staff

A Hamas terrorist celebrates the killing of an IDF soldier near Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in bodycam footage provided to CNN by the military. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

November 16, 2023, 10:10 am

In new Oct. 7 clip, Hamas terrorist cheers civilian bodies, boasts he killed soldiers

Bodycam footage handed to CNN by IDF shows gunman crossing Gaza border, shooting at Israeli homes, posing with troop’s body and proudly praying for martyrdom, before being killed

By ToI Staff

IDF soldiers operate at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City overnight in a handout photo distributed on November 15, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

November 15, 2023, 1:44 pm

Daily Briefing Nov 15: Day 40 – IDF controls north Gaza, above ground; enters Shifa

Military reporter Emanuel Fabian on the large Shifa hospital compound and why the war is still far from over; senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur on yesterday’s March for Israel rally

By ToI Staff

A tunnel shaft found by IDF forces leading to underneath Gaza City's Rantisi Hospital, in a photo released by the military on November 13, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

November 14, 2023, 2:27 pm

Daily Briefing Nov 14: Day 39 – IDF uncovers Hamas warren under Gaza children’s hospital

Zman Yisrael editor Biranit Goren on a hostage who gave birth in captivity; reporter Gavriel Fiske on pop-up schools for displaced Israeli kids, and US cowboys in the wild West Bank

By ToI Staff

IDF troops in Gaza exposing an entrance to a Hamas tunnel, November 2023. (IDF/Screenshot)

November 8, 2023, 9:26 pm

IDF: Troops destroyed 130 Hamas tunnel shafts in Gaza since start of ground op

Forces uncover tunnel next to UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun, also find entrances next to structure with car batteries, thought to be hooked up to tunnel air filtration system

By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, September 18, 2014. (AP/Khalil Hamra)

October 31, 2023, 10:12 pm

Top Hamas official declares group is not responsible for defending Gazan civilians

Moussa Abu Marzouk says vast underground tunnel network is for the protection of the terror group’s members, while civilians should be taken care of by the UN and Israel

By Gianluca Pacchiani

An Israeli army officer gives journalists a tour, Friday, July 25, 2014, of a tunnel used by Palestinian terrorists for cross-border attacks, at the Israel-Gaza Border. (AP Photo/Jack Guez, Pool, File)

October 28, 2023, 6:23 pm

‘Like fighting ghosts’: The challenge the IDF faces in destroying Hamas’s tunnels

IAF strikes on underground targets are intensifying. But dislodging Hamas will require clearing out its vast tunnel network, a nightmarish task complicated by presence of hostages

By Jon Gambrell and Isabel Debre