The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended on Dec. 1, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.
The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
Israel has recently started to pump seawater into Hamas’ underground network of tunnels, two U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News. It seems the flooding has been limited as Israel evaluates the effectiveness of this strategy compared to its other techniques.
The development was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The Israeli Defense Forces has not publicly commented.
ABC News previously reported that Israel was exploring a range of options to take out Hamas’ tunnels, including flooding them with seawater — an approach some worried could have devastating long-term environmental impacts and other ramifications for Gaza’s civilian population.
Some Biden administration officials have said the process could help destroy the tunnels, where Israel believes the Hamas group is hiding hostages, fighters, and munitions, the Journal reported. Other officials have expressed concerns the seawater would endanger Gaza’s fresh water supply, the newspaper reported.
The flooding process began after the IDF added two pumps to five pumps that had been installed to flood the tunnels last month, the US officials told the Journal. The first five large pumps had been assembled north of the al-Shati refugee camp during the last month, with each one capable of pumping thousands of cubic meters of seawater into the tunnels.
In 2015, Egypt used seawater to flood a section of tunnels in the southern stretch of the enclave to disrupt smuggling activity, which led to complaints about damaged homes and crops, as well as contaminated water supplies.
President Joe Biden said at a campaign reception that Israel is starting to lose support and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to “strengthen” and “change” the government to find a long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
War crime
A Russian diplomat warned last week that Israel’s plan to flood Hamas tunnels in order to flush out the fighters may constitute a war crime.
“War crimes are snowballing — shocking reports have been circulated in recent days that Israel plans to flood underground facilities in the Gaza Strip with seawater,” Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said during a United Nations Security Council meeting this week.
The WSJ reported that the Israel Defense Forces have constructed five large seawater pumps about one mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp, with each pump capable of moving thousands of cubic meters of water per hour from the Mediterranean Sea into the Hamas tunnels.
The report, citing senior U.S. officials, claims that this process could flood the tunnels within weeks, but Israel has not committed to the plan – especially with concerns over the remaining hostages, whom Hamas may still have in the tunnels. The slow flood could allow for Hamas and hostages to flee the tunnel, a source familiar with the plan said.
“We are not sure how successful pumping will be, since nobody knows the details of the tunnels and the ground around them,” the source said. “It’s impossible to know if that will be effective because we don’t know how seawater will drain in tunnels no one has been in before.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the war has caused a public health crisis in the Gaza Strip that could drive up the death toll, which the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry has already reported at over 18,300. The lack of functioning hospitals, running water, and shelters will contribute heavily to the deteriorating situation, according to WHO.
Ya Libnan/ News Agencies
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