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Why Israel Must Destroy Hamas's Gaza Tunnel Network

(Ynet News) Ron Ben-Yishai - As long as Hamas and half a dozen other armed Islamist jihadist factions remain active in Gaza and have the capacity to recover, physical security for residents of Israel's western Negev region will remain out of reach, and normal life will remain impossible. Israel has lived under the threat from Gaza since the state's founding. But as seen in the Oct. 7 massacre, Gaza has become an existential threat that can no longer be tolerated. This is due in part to advances in military technology now accessible to any terrorist, and due to support from Iran and Qatar, which have turned Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) into terrorist armies. Gaza has become a hub for manufacturing weapons and explosives and a vast warehouse for them, all of it underground. During the ground operations through June 2024, the IDF succeeded in dismantling the organized fighting forces of Hamas and PIJ. It killed many of their most skilled and experienced fighters and destroyed most of their strategic tunnels and long-range rocket systems. Yet Hamas retains control over 70% of its network of combat tunnels, storing hundreds of rockets, RPGs and explosive devices. This allows the terror groups to wage guerrilla warfare using a few hundred veteran fighters and scores of children they have armed and deployed to lay explosives. If allowed to rebuild, they could, within a few years, again make life unbearable for Israeli communities. Therefore, the IDF must dismantle and render inoperable Hamas's underground network in a way that prevents its reconstruction.
2025-06-10 00:00:00
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