What you should know about the Hamas tunnels in Gaza

There is at least one thing about the Israel-Hamas war, now approaching its third anniversary, that makes it different than any war ever fought.

The extensive tunnel system erected by Hamas in Gaza, a system known locally as Gaza Metro, is not the largest tunnel system in the world; China and North Korea are believed to have larger ones.

But the Israeli-Hamas war is the first in which a vast underground tunnel network has been made the defining centerpiece of a country’s overall military strategy, according to the Modern War Institute at West Point.

The tunnel system is a significant advantage for Hamas in many ways.

• It is a hiding place for Hamas fighters.

• It serves as a storage facility for armaments and military equipment.

• Portions of it have functioned as a prison for Israeli hostages.

• It provides an assembly facility for warfare planning and training and a safe harbor for Hamas leaders.

• It enables the smuggling of goods into Gaza from its neighbors, Israel on the north and east, and Egypt to the south.

Without the tunnels, the Hamas military organization and its war equipment likely would have been destroyed by Israeli bombing by now.

Destroying the tunnels, however, has proved virtually impossible. After almost three years of bombing and ground attacks, the tunnel system is believed to remain at least 75 percent intact. Moreover, some of the areas of the system that have been damaged or destroyed by bombing already have been rebuilt or restored.

There are not enough explosives in the Israeli arsenal to destroy the entire system.

In addition, the system has been protected to some extent by the fact that the Israeli hostages have been imprisoned in small groups at various locations within the tunnel system. This has prevented Israel from attacking the tunnel at locations where hostages are believed to be held.

Much of the tunnel system was built beneath civilian facilities such as schools, mosques, hospitals, and multi-story apartment buildings. Although Israel has bombed some of these facilities, it has faced growing criticism for the civilian deaths caused by such attacks. It seems highly likely that tunnel attacks by Israel would have been more aggressive if the tunnels had not been located in this way.

Also, consider the size and nature of the tunnel system:

The system has about 300 miles of tunnels in all. The total mileage is about the length of Interstate 80 across Iowa, from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River. The tunnels, however, are truly a network; some of them are connected, others are isolated. There are more than 5,700 access shafts in Gaza leading to and from the tunnels. Many of the tunnels cross the border into Israel, where the shafts are camouflaged.

The tunnels are situated 60 to 100 feet below the surface. Think about a six-story to 10-story building being built underground, and then a tunnel system running along through the basements of these underground buildings.

The tunnels are three to six feet wide and tall enough so that people can walk through them upright.

They have concrete walls, electrical service, communications systems, and plumbing facilities. Goods and people within the tunnel system can be moved by rail, small trucks, mules, and motorcycles.

The tunnel entrances often are booby-trapped as a defensive measure against Israeli troops.

Construction of the system began about 15 years ago, a couple of years after Hamas took over Gaza as party members were elected to high office.

The cost of building the tunnel system is not known, but estimates have ranged up to $1 billion, with the money coming from various sources, including local taxes in Gaza, skimming of grants from the United Nations, and direct aid from Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and private donors and organizations.

The existence of the tunnel system has been one of the factors that has extended the Hamas-Israeli war longer than anyone imagined at the beginning.

So long as Israel maintains its stated goal of eliminating Hamas, the tunnel system makes that goal unrealistic.

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