Gaza: How Hamas tunnel network grew

[hack89]

Good history of tunnels in Gaza

After Israel withdrew from Gaza, the number of smuggling tunnels jumped from a few dozen to hundreds as more and more Gazans got involved in this lucrative business. Taxes imposed by the Hamas government on the imports were a major source of its revenue. After the Egyptian military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government, the new regime shut down these tunnels - this being one of the causes of the present economic crisis in Gaza.

In 2006, the Palestinians tried something new - a tunnel was dug underneath the Gaza-Israel border and an assault team emerged behind an Israeli border post. The Israeli soldiers were surprised - two were killed, one wounded and one - Gilad Shalit - abducted.

After the failure of Hamas' rocket forces to inflict significant damage on Israeli towns in November 2012, they decided to build a large offensive-tunnel capability that would enable them to infiltrate assault teams into Israeli villages within a few kilometres of the border or place large bombs underneath these villages.

As yet no reliable technology has been developed that can cover a wide area and see a man-sized tunnel to a depth of more than a few meters underground. The tunnels dug by Hamas are usually about 65ft (20m) underground - so, even if you know the approximate location, they are almost impossible to detect.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28430298

[Jefferson23]

1. Thanks, hack..that was informative. n/t

[Larkspur]

2. Proves that the Palestinians are a resourcefull and intelligent people

and that the Israelis have become drunk on overuse of their modernized weaponry and on the overuse of Holocaust victim-hood imagery.

[hack89]

3. Think what Gaza would be like

if that resourcefulness and intelligence was applied to peaceful ends.