Israel uses robots and bombs to attack tunnels in Gaza

Israel believes a vast underground Hamas command headquarters is operating in tunnels beneath the hospital, and on Thursday evening it said the military had found a tunnel and weapons-carrying vehicles inside the hospital complex.

Israel finds new mandibular joint in Gaza's largest hospital using robots and explosives image 1 — Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari shows a tunnel at a site in Gaza. Photo: Israel Defense Forces

“At Shifa Hospital, IDF troops found an active tunnel and a vehicle containing a large quantity of weapons,” the Israeli military said. The Israeli military also released videos and photos showing the tunnel and weapons.

They also said the body of an Israeli woman, one of about 240 hostages held by Hamas militants, was found by troops in a building near the hospital. Military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were also found in the building.

At another hospital, Israeli military engineers filled the passageway with explosive gel after identifying what they described as the entrance to a Hamas tunnel underneath. Surveillance video showed the explosion engulfing the building and sending smoke billowing from at least three points along a nearby road in a district of Beit Hanoun.

“The gel spread and exploded whatever was waiting for us in the tunnel,” an army officer told reporters at a press conference at the Zeelim Ground Forces Base in southern Israel.

Clearing the tunnels is a key part of Israel's military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to the Palestinian militant group's deadly October 7 attack on Israel.

Israel finds new mandibular tunnel in Gaza's largest hospital using robots and explosives image 2 — Israeli soldiers approach the entrance to a tunnel during an amphibious operation in Gaza. Photo: Israeli Defense Ministry.

Because of the mysterious tunnel system that runs hundreds of kilometers underground in Gaza, the Israeli military has opted to use surveillance robots and other technology that operates remotely.

The Israeli officer did not name the hospital in Beit Hanoun and added that several gunmen had stormed the Israeli army from tunnels and were killed. “We did not want to go down there. We knew they had left us a lot of homemade bombs,” he said.

One such bomb, attached to the lid of a tunnel leading to an above-ground tunnel, killed four Israeli special forces reservists last week.

Security sources say Hamas has tunnels for attack, smuggling and storage. Dozens of tunnel openings can lead to tunnels ranging from 20 to 80 metres deep. The Israeli military said last week that 130 tunnels had been destroyed so far, but did not give a figure for how many tunnels had been destroyed.

Several tonnes of explosive gel – but refused to give any technical details, other than to say it was delivered by truck – were needed for every few hundred metres of tunnel, the officer said.

After-action analysis is difficult. The officer said about half of the tunnels in the Israeli military’s area of operations in Beit Hanoun had been destroyed, but acknowledged that they could be rebuilt. “It’s hard to say how many tunnels were destroyed because they were all interconnected,” he said.

He added that captured Palestinian militants had provided Israel with intelligence about the tunnel network, but that the information was limited. “Most of them don’t know the whole city. But they know their villages, they know the tunnel system there quite well,” the officer said.

It could take months to destroy Gaza’s entire underground network, he added. “I think it’s more complex than the New York City subway,” he said.

Hamas has denied using the hospital as a cover for such tunnels. It rejects Israel's assertion that it has a command center located underneath Al Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital.

Hoang Anh (according to Reuters)

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