Traps, snipers: Alpha colonel named obstacles for IDF in Gaza tunnels

“All sorts of traps, tripwires, mines and snipers may await.”

The Israel Defense Forces will have to fight in an underground city during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Multi-level tunnels run under Gaza with a total length of 500 kilometers. The network of underground passages is Hamas’s trump card; in fact, it is a military complex. Colonel Vitaly Demidkin, who served in the Alpha special anti-terror unit for 26 years, said what IDF soldiers might face.

“It is very difficult to operate in underground labyrinths, where there are many structures of varying lengths and depths,” says Vitaly Demidkin. “Our soldiers faced this when they took Artemovsk.

There are several factories with underground bunkers, narrow corridors and shelters. They were built with the expectation that in the event of a nuclear explosion, production would continue to operate underground. There are also extensive salt and gypsum mines with many branches. Underground workings are convenient places for organizing defensive positions. Our fighters had to literally smoke the enemy out of there.

The underground of Gaza is sometimes called the local “metro”. The labyrinths of tunnels there lie at a depth of 20 meters and 70 meters. The walls of the underground passages are reinforced with concrete, and in some places there are ceilings made of massive concrete slabs. This is a multi-level combat complex.

There, the enemy can expect all kinds of traps, tripwires, mines, as well as snipers. The tunnels have many entrances and exits. Some may specifically lead to dead ends or to places where the Israeli military could expect a collapse.

Hamas fighters feel at home in the tunnels. As our interlocutor says, the network of underground corridors makes it possible to quickly transfer both forces and weapons. Tunnels can lead to the surface to firing points that are well camouflaged.

“We must take into account that at depth there may be a lack of oxygen. The attackers will have to go down with special cylinders and night vision devices. Bring flashlights with spare batteries.

The colonel believes that the Israeli military can take a guide with them into the dungeon who is good at navigating the labyrinths, or capture a “tongue.”

— Clearing such vast dungeons is very difficult. Hamas fighters may remain there for a long time. They have telephone exchanges in the tunnels and cables for communication. There are special filters for groundwater purification, as well as generators,” says the expert.

Vitaly Demidkin recalls the Odessa catacombs, where partisans took refuge during the Great Patriotic War. After the extraction of the shell stone, there were incredibly intricate workings left there with a network of underground voids. The underground, waging a war of sabotage, literally appeared from underground and just as suddenly disappeared. At depth they had living quarters, a kitchen, a bathhouse, and a medical unit.

— The Nazis released poisonous gas into the catacombs, filled the adits with water, and bricked up the exits. Surprisingly, the partisans remained there until the liberation of Odessa in April 1944.

The colonel believes that Israel will now continue to destroy Hamas’ underground infrastructure from the air. And the engineering troops will use special explosive devices and penetrating shells to destroy underground passages in Gaza. Special robots will also be involved.

“Everything will be done to block the entrances and exits, to collapse the underground labyrinths. But it’s still impossible to blow everything up. The IDF understands that if the Israeli military has to go underground, a large number of casualties cannot be avoided.