Israel May Flood Hamas Tunnel System Before Ground Operation

According to US investigative writer Seymour Hersh, Israel may flood the Hamas Tunnel System before the ground operation.

Before beginning its combat offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israel is considering flooding Hamas’ tunnel system, according to US investigative writer Seymour Hersh, who cited sources.

“A well-informed American official told me that the Israeli leadership is known to be considering flooding Hamas’s vast tunnel system before sending in its troops, many of whom have had only a few weeks of training in the maneuvers and coordination required for the invasion,” Hersh wrote in a column that appeared on Substack.

According to Hersh, Israel is already bombarding Gaza City nonstop in an effort to reduce it to rubble and is preparing to launch a ground invasion shortly.

If the tunnels were flooded, it might indicate that Israel was prepared to “write off the hostages still in jeopardy,” according to Hersh.

“Where the estimated 200-plus hostages are is an open question. Israel is only talking about the end of the Hamas regime and Hamas has so far released four hostages,” Hersh said. “The American official told me that the Israel leadership expects more to come soon.”

Israel is postponing the commencement of its ground assault of Gaza, according to remarks made earlier on Tuesday by Emmanuel Nahshon, the deputy director general for public diplomacy in Israel, because of potential “deadly traps.”

According to Nahshon, the Israeli military is taking its time because it needs to get its soldiers ready for this particular scenario.

Hersh went on to say that on October 7, the military wing of Hamas, the Qassam brigades, along with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, attacked Israeli kibbutzim and villages.

The mysterious tunnels of Gaza, which have been dug by Gaza’s militias for close to 40 years, are often hidden beneath buildings, vegetation, and other terrain, posing a threat of urban warfare.

According to an article published on Tuesday that quoted a US official, the Qassam brigades were not alone on the day of the attack on Israel. In fact, they were joined by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a coalition of Palestinian armed groups that has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, Israel, the EU, and other countries.

“We know,” Hersch cited the official as saying, “that the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade participated.”

Hersh speculates that the failure of covert negotiations about a wider release of Israeli hostages was partly due to the involvement of external organizations supporting Hamas in the attack on Israel.

On October 7, the Palestinian group Hamas launched surprise attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israel declared war on Hamas and launched strikes as well as imposed a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, cutting off supplies of water, food, medicines, electricity and fuel to some 2.3 million Palestinians.

The escalation of the conflict has resulted in the killing of 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians and some 5,000 Palestinians with multiple thousands of injured.