Flood Hamas tunnels: will Israel be able to carry out the plan?

The current situation with the Israelis clearing the Gaza Strip is still a task with many unknowns. One of the main mysteries is the notorious tunnels and dungeons where Hamas militants set up their facilities. According to information that has now been circulated by many media outlets, Israel wants to flood these dungeons.

This information bomb was “exploded” by Seymour Hersh. The famous journalist published a message on his account that the authorities of the Jewish state allegedly intend to flood the Hamas underground galleries along with everyone who is there, including hostages captured by militants.

If this is true, then the action looks incredibly cruel. But is its implementation possible in principle?

Civil engineer Yaroslav L. expressed his opinion on this matter.

— As far as I understand, there is no exact information about the underground labyrinths dug under Gaza. We don’t even know whether they are united into a single system or represent separate units. Therefore, it is possible to assess the reality of the flooding operation only with very large reservations.

Let’s start with where to get water from. The only option for those places where the desert reigns is the sea. The Israelis need to equip several powerful pumping stations off the coast on their territory, lay pipes…

“But they will also have to be laid across the Gaza Strip, where the situation is controlled by Hamas combat units…

— There is a chance to avoid such a problem. For their “water attack,” the Israelis can use the tunnels they discovered, dug by the Gazans from the enclave under the border lines. The exits from them are located in the border zone of the Jewish state.

Another question is whether supplying water to such a tunnel will lead to flooding of the entire system of Hamas dungeons? The probability is not that great. Judging by the published information, some of the cross-border underground passages exist separately from the rest of the labyrinths dug underground.

It is most realistic for them to create a similar system along the northern border of the Gaza Strip, which is located near the sea coast. But, as I understand it, the Hamas carried out the main underground construction further south, in Gaza itself and its environs. Will the water poured into the underground passages in the north reach there? Does Hamas have underground north-south routes? We don’t know this.

If, however, the Israelis decide to conduct such an attack from the eastern borders of the enclave, they will have to pull many kilometers of water pipelines there. This matter is quite long, although… It can be assumed that the leadership of the Jewish state and its army, being aware of the existence of underground Hamas structures in Gaza, began to prepare ahead of time for their destruction by flooding. In this case, I would not be surprised if it turns out that water pipelines have already been built and even brought to the places most convenient for supplying water to Hamas tunnels.

The MK correspondent found several cases of “water attacks” dating back to the Great Patriotic War.

One of them is associated with the defense of the railway station in Brest in the very first days of the war. Under the station building there was an extensive network of basements, where, after the Nazi attack, several dozen Red Army soldiers and commanders descended.

as well as civilians. The fighters of the underground garrison held the defense for several days. Moreover, the station building itself and the area around it had already been captured by the enemy.

The Nazis tried to destroy, smoke out our soldiers with grenades, smoke, fire… When all these attempts were unsuccessful, the enemies pulled a hose from the water pump to the basement windows. They flooded the basements for more than 24 hours. As a result, the last defenders of the station still had to leave the dungeons. The famous German saboteur Otto Skorzeny wrote about this defense, which lasted a week, in his memoirs: “The enemy troops, who were entrenched in the deep basements of the Brest station, refused to surrender. As I learned later, I simply had to flood the basements, since all other attempts to drive the Russians out of there ended in failure.”

The Nazis resorted to flooding underground structures at the end of the war, when Soviet troops stormed Berlin. By order (it was allegedly given by Hitler himself), water was released into the Berlin metro. An explosion was carried out in one of the subway tunnels – in the place where it passed under the Landwehrkanal. As a result of the destruction of the vaults, streams of water poured into the underground. However, it was not possible to reliably flood all the stations and tunnels in this zone in order to stop the advance of Soviet soldiers through them towards the Reich Chancellery. In most of the capital’s subway structures, the water rose only 1–2 meters. The terrain was to blame for this: the stations are located above the level of the Spree, the main river in Berlin.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29144 dated October 26, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Dead water for Hamas