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This guy?
Posted on 11/05/2023 6:10:01 AM PST by libh8er
The biggest problem confronting Israel in its war on Hamas is how to destroy the Gaza tunnel networks and the terrorist operations therein. Bombing works—mostly—but there’s a better way. Not only would it dramatically reduce Israeli military and Gazan civilian casualties, but it would effectively destroy the tunnel systems for the long term. That solution is to flood the tunnels with seawater from the adjacent Mediterranean.
I worked on the Gaza Strip back in the 1990s. The U.S. government was pouring tens of millions of tax dollars into development assistance there on engineering infrastructure, housing, and related projects. Part of reviewing that work on the ground involved tramping over much of the small territory on foot.
Gaza consists of a strip of beach, back beach, and coastal plain that’s flat to slightly rolling. The territory stretches for about twenty-five miles along the eastern Mediterranean. At its widest, in the south, it’s about seven and a half miles wide; most of it is far narrower, about half of that.
The Gaza tunnel system, mostly constructed over the last forty years, provides Hamas with offensive access to Israel. It also constitutes the terrorist organization’s most formidable defensive redoubt. The tunnels present by far the most difficult logistical problem for Israel in eliminating enemy targets. Open-source maps show at least eleven independent tunnel networks, some nearly adjacent to the sea. The number of independent networks, however, could far exceed that. Hamas claims that the total length of the tunnels is about three hundred miles.
The geography of Gaza argues strongly for the stratagem of flooding the tunnels. It would force the enemy above ground where they can more easily be destroyed, dramatically reduce the Israeli casualties required to accomplish that task and resolve the problem of dealing with parts of the tunnels that are too deep to destroy through bombing. Most importantly, flooding is a permanent or near-permanent solution to the Gaza tunnel problem. Once accomplished, pumping them out enough to be usable again would be both extremely costly and—especially in conjunction with bombing—exceptionally difficult. The timing of executing a flooding strategy is flexible; some could be flooded now, others later, and still others once they’re discovered.
The engineering is straightforward. Egypt flooded thirty-seven cross-border tunnels in southern Gaza back in 2015 in what stands as a practical proof of concept in this location. Seawater from the Mediterranean would be pumped directly into the tunnel openings through short pipelines. While there’s little hydrological head, there is also little topographical relief to deal with in laying the pipe. Large volumes of water are pumped long distances every day, and Israeli water technology is world class.
The shortest and most direct route to the tunnel entrances would be directly from the Mediterranean. This would require kinetic clearing of the construction sites and holding them for the duration of the operation to protect the temporary water transmission lines. The distance that would need to be cleared and held could be minimized on the northernmost and eastern tunnels by running a trunk line through adjacent Israeli territory and feeding water distribution lines to the tunnel entrances off that.
Flooding doesn’t have to be slow. A six-by-five-foot tunnel that runs 300 miles is a huge volume to fill, but how fast it fills depends on how fast the water is pumped. Rough calculations indicate that if a single pipe were used for each of eleven tunnels, with each pipe pumping at a very conservative 100 gallons per minute, it would take about seven and a half months for all eleven tunnel networks to fill. Pumping water at ten times that rate, however, is routinely done today everywhere from wastewater treatment plants to oil field operations. Also, the tunnels wouldn’t have to be filled to capacity to generate the desired effect. The effect would begin as soon as water started to flow; by the time a tunnel has two or three feet of water it would be effectively unusable.
The collateral damage to infrastructure should be minimal. The distances are short, the diameter of the required pipe is small, and the pipelines would run very close to the surface. As with the Egyptian tunnel operations, the impact of flooding on groundwater salinization would no doubt be raised. The extent of saltwater leakage through the tunnels into local groundwater would depend on the depth and construction of the tunnels and the configuration of the local aquifer. Gaza’s shallow aquifer is already over-depleted, however, and ninety-five percent of its groundwater was considered unfit for public consumption as far back as 2017. The reason is that it’s extensively contaminated with chemicals and sewage, as well as saltwater intrusion from the Mediterranean due to a long history of over pumping. Because of that, Gaza relies heavily on desalinization for potable water.
In the short term, think of flooding Gaza’s tunnels as humanitarian assistance. By eliminating the need to keep bombing them, flooding would reduce civilian casualties and other collateral damage. In the long term, think of denying Hamas access to the tunnels as an A2AD stratagem. At the end of the war, there can be no complete destruction of Hamas, nor long-term peace out of Gaza, unless and until the Gaza tunnels are taken out.
No Arab nation will take in any Palistinian refugees. They are savages and cause trouble wherever they go.
True. But I wonder how many of the hostages are still alive AND, whether the terrorists will actually free them in any negotiated deal...more than likely, they will take lots of photos and videos of them while alive, to be used for negotiating...then kill them and stash the bodies deep in the tunnels.
Here in the south we have an excess of feral hogs. I think we should export thousands of feral hogs and let them run the tunnels before the flooding takes place.
Don’t waste the water.
Seal them up.
Not to worry, Joe will bring them here.
Seems like a good short-term solution.
“The Rodenator™️”
The trade name sounds like they were planning for it to be used on Hamas, Hezbollah, et al.
Pressure seal the tunnel closest to the sea. Pump in seawater until it starts running up/out of connected tunnel entrances.
1. you will know WHERE all connected tunnel entrance/exits are.
2. All terrorists in those tunnels will be dead
3. Many/most of anything stored in those tunnels will be ruined.
THIS!
“Just send friendlies through each mile to ensure no hostages are in the tunnels, then set the flood in motion.”
NO! THIS IS WAR!
We cannot allow the taking/holding of hostages to prevent WINNING the war!
So sad, too bad.
TRY to rescue them, TRY to protect/save them, but at the end of the day, operations can not be limited just to prevent hostages from being killed.
The idea of risking the lives of soldiers to search all the tunnels for POTENTIAL hostages is RIDICULOUS!
BOMB/GAS/FLOOD ALL THE TUNNELS NOW!
God will sort it out.
They are using sponge bombs.
For extra lulz, make sure to attach GoPros to a lot of them.
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This guy?
I’m a big fan of a propane/oxygen mix.
In WWII, US Marines rolled barrels of gasoline down Japanese caves, then threw in hand grenades, then fired some incendiary rounds. Burning gasoline makes a cave unlivable in a hurry.
The Israelis might improve it by putting a double charge in the barrels. The first charge vaporizes and disperses the gasoline, and the second charge ignites it. When vaporized, liquid gasoline is about as powerful, weight for weight, as is dynamite.
https://youtu.be/y6UufPc87wY?si=3kPINqBYsmC9Sv4n
I forgot to mention, it looked like a green volcano.
Why not jump pump exhaust fumes in there? Easier than pumping water.
The tunnels become catacombs filled with the dead without fuel to run ventilation systems and when food and water runs out. Two significant things happened in last night’s fighting. It appears from livestream footage that a fuel dump in Northern Gaza was destroyed. There have been rumors that Hamas had be withholding fuel from the people in Gaza. That appears to be correct and now at least on large supply is gone. The blaze from the fuel dump lasted for well over an hour. I have yet to see any burning this significant in my nightly livestream viewing.
There were also reports of a water tower being destroyed. I can only guess that with a tunnel system as sophisticated as Hamas has constructed that it had a water supply. Bottled water is bulky and takes up space. If the IDF cuts Hamas’ water supply then their time is truly limited. Quite seriously, I would attempt to deny all water and just wait it out. Food doesn’t make any difference if you don’t have water. Four or so days without water and they are dead.
However, I am not saying they are completely cut off from all water as of today. There’s probably significantly more that needs to be consumed or destroyed before they run out. The important thing is there is no way for Hamas to get water into Northern Gaza without going through a killing field. That’s if the IDF can cut tunnels running south to north; which is a completely different proposition than having to enter and engage in close quarters combat and deal with boobytraps.
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