Posted on 11/01/2023 10:28:56 AM PDT by bitt
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.
more....
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brilliant
After this exercise is over, every tunnel in GAZA will be destroyed.
It would be more effective to send faucie there to vaccinate hamas
Sounds good to me. Would also force Hamas to pull hostages out of the tunnels (where I presume most of them are held) into above-ground buildings where they could more easily be rescued.
Filling the tunnels with raw sewage works for me.
rofl
On a serious note however, I believe the released hostages have stated they were held in the tunnels.
Fixed it.
I met a young guy from Israel that was studying mining. He said when he was in the IDF he was in a group that located and destroyed tunnels. One of the things they did was use sewage tankers to fill them before they blocked the tunnels. I think that was just out of spite rather than accomplishing anything though.
They want food, send the pigs down there.
Israel would have to write off the hostages first. In a harsh cost benefit analysis, Israel would have to calculate the number of deaths and casualties the rescuers would take exceeds the benefit of how many hostages could be saved saved. No doubt many hostages would be killed in a rescue attempt.
your point?
Send Eric swallwell with beans and brats for hamas and himself (being the compassionate humanitarian) and have swallwell gas em out.
Recall how Bin Ladin’s “fortress” at Tora Bora was much overrated. Wonder if it is the same for the “300 miles of tunnels?”
In the frantic heat of battle, you think Hamas gives two f**ks about the hostages?
And quit sending them money to build more tunnels.
I’ve been thinking about the flooding for a while and thought about what the savages would do to the hostages. One alternative is to leave them down there to drown and then blame Israel for killing the hostages. I know the hostages are very valuable to Hamas as leverage. I also know that it would be hard for them to blame Israel because the only reason the hostages would drown was if Hamas prevented them from leaving the tunnels.
Why be cruel to pigs?
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