Hussein Obama had to weigh in because his brothers in Gaza are paying the price. Having killed 1400 Israelis, the IDF has unleashed the Mother of all Wars on Hamas. When the job is complete Hamas will be no mas. This was not a war Israel wanted, but the killing of innocents, babies and mothers, they had no choice but to clean out the vermin that is a stone’s throw away.
Israeli elite units delve deep into Gaza’s tangled underworld in ruthless pursuit of Hamas terrorists
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JERUSALEM — In his daily briefings, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari regularly reminds Israelis that the war against Hamas in Gaza is being fought from “the air, the sea and the land,” yet he misses out on one important arena that is likely to become the focus as Israel sends its troops deeper into the Palestinian enclave: The vast web of underground tunnels built by Hamas.
According to those who closely track the Iranian-backed terror group, as well as admissions by its own leaders, Hamas has built an approximately 300-mile subterranean system that snakes beneath civilian homes, schools and hospitals in urban areas of the Gaza Strip.
And for the past three weeks – since its forces carried out a massive and brutal terrorist attack inside Israel on Oct. 7 – Hamas’ leadership, both political and military, has been safely holed up down there as Israeli fighter jets pound the territory from above.
On Wednesday during a briefing with the foreign press, Hagari said the massive damage in the Jabalia refugee camp after an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday was worsened by the fact that there were tunnels underneath the densely packed urban area. Locals reported seeing sinkholes opening up under the bombed-out buildings.
As Israeli ground forces expand further inside Gaza, the IDF will be forced to turn its attention to this underground battlefield, which is a challenge faced in other recent conflicts, particularly in the Middle East, but never on this scale, experts told Fox News Digital this week.
ISRAEL’S HUNT FOR HAMAS TERROR GROUP LEADER YAHYA SINWAR: ‘DEAD MAN WALKING’
- This infographic produced by the Israel Defense Forces shows where officials say Hamas has created a command center under Al-Shifa Hospital. (Israel Defense Forces)
- “Tunnels change everything about how the military is going to be able to advance and take control of the situation,” said Daphné Richemond-Barak, senior researcher and head of the International Law Desk at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University in Israel.
“Tunnels turn the battlefield into a multidimensional battlefield, which is not the case in regular urban terrain, and that is something that must be considered as part of the operational challenges,” continued Richemond-Barak, also a research fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point.
“As they (the IDF) advance into Gaza, they might be ambushed by tunnels behind them or below them in a most violent and unsettling fashion,” she said.
Such a scenario actually happened to an elite force of Israeli soldiers during a previous round of fighting in Gaza. In the 2014 conflict that Israelis refer to as Operation Protective Edge, three Israeli soldiers were ambushed by Hamas terrorists who succeeded in dragging the dead body of one of the soldiers, Lt. Hadar Goldin, into a secret tunnel. Israelis were shocked by this action, which happened during a U.N.-mediated cease-fire, and have been fighting to return Goldin’s body ever since.
