The enemy below

[Bob Of Burleson]

Why Hamas tunnels scare Israel so much

By Gerard DeGroot
The Washington Post

Adm. Luis Carrero Blanco was a model of predictability. That predictability killed him.

Carrero Blanco, the Spanish prime minister handpicked by Francisco Franco to be his successor, attended the same Mass daily at a church in Madrid. For five months in 1973, a small group of ETA militants, pretending to be students, rented a basement flat on the street the admiral faithfully traveled. They burrowed under the road and packed the tunnel with 175 pounds of explosives. On Dec. 20, a huge blast threw Carrero Blanco’s car over the roof of a five-story building, and Franco’s hopes of a smooth succession were vaporized.

Tunnels are a simple solution to an age-old wartime problem: how to attack a well-defended enemy. In justifying its ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government has publicized scenarios of Hamas fighters pouring forth from dozens of “terror tunnels” crossing from Gaza into Israel, ready to launch lightning attacks on kibbutzim or to blow up Israel Defense Forces positions. Such scenarios are powerful because tunnels evoke a peculiar horror — as though the devil himself were emerging from hell to spread torment on Earth.

If a target is disciplined and well fortified, like Israel, attackers have difficulty traversing the battlefield to engage it. By providing concealment up to the moment of engagement, tunnels are a labor-intensive but cheap alternative. Yahya al-Sinwar, a Hamas political bureau member, recently boasted that tunnels have shifted the fortunes of war in favor of the Palestinians. “Today, we are the ones who invade the Israelis,” he said. “They do not invade us.”

Gerard DeGroot is a professor of history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He is the author of 13 books on 20th-century war and politics.

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[Houston]

a nice earthquake would be nice for Israel

[LibraryLady]

a nice earthquake would be nice for Israel

????? Collapsing the buildings in Israel?

[grouchy]

a nice earthquake would be nice for Israel

????? Collapsing the buildings in Israel?

There you go, trying to be logical. Silly lady. ;0)

[Bob Of Burleson]

Tunnels Lead Right to the Heart of Israeli Fear

The New York Times

An Israeli military spokesman said that in the tunnels uncovered so far, soldiers have found more than 70 side shafts. Inside the Ein Hashlosha tunnel, they picked up potato-chip bags dated as late as February. Elsewhere, there were dates, water and crackers; rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles; small rooms for sleeping or hiding; a kidnapping kit of tranquilizers and plastic handcuffs; Israeli Army uniforms; and a Bosch drill used for digging the tunnels that (Lt. Col. Oshik) Azulai described as “a very good one.”

“It’s like a subway under Gaza,” he said.

Israeli experts said each tunnel would take up to a year and cost up to $2 million to build, involving dozens of diggers working by hand and with small electric tools. The military has known about the tunnels since at least 2003 and had a task force studying them for a year, but was nonetheless stunned at the sophisticated network they found.

COMPLETE STORY

[crocmommy]

What is the best method to locate the tunnels?

[kent]

come on! They built those tunnels so their kids could play in them. There is no threat.

[Bob Of Burleson]

What is the best method to locate the tunnels?

Good question. It seems that sophisticated ground detection systems like the ones used by oil and gas rigs don't work because the tunnels are so close to the surface. The Israeli military watches for mounds of earth suddenly appearing in Gaza gardens and alleys and for large numbers of people hauling supplies into small houses.