by Lt.
Col. (ret.) Jonathan Dahoah Halevi
Ismail
Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, delivered a revealing speech on March 23,
2014, in which he stressed the strategic importance of the Hamas attack
tunnels, which, he argued, have changed the balance of power with Israel, when
taken together with his organization's military build-up. In the meantime, the
IDF's war against the tunnels continues. On Monday IDF forces thwarted another
terror attack after two groups of Hamas operatives (numbering about ten)
infiltrated from Gaza to Israel through a tunnel, apparently on their way to
carry out a mass casualty attack at Kibbutz Erez and/or Kibbutz Nir Am.
Since
Operation Protective Edge began, IDF forces have foiled several other attempted
attacks by Hamas near Kibbutz Sufa and Kibbutz Nirim that also made use of
attack tunnels, while uncovering and blowing up dozens of tunnels in Gaza along
its border with Israel. Thesetunnels penetrate deep into Israeli territory,
sometimes reaching a length of 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles).
Hamas
has accumulated a great deal of experience in using the tunnels for operational
purposes. Since 2000, hundreds of tunnels have been dug along Gaza's border
with Egypt, providing a lifeline for Hamas's military buildup. The tunnels have
been a main conduit for Palestinian imports from Egypt on a scale of millions
of dollars annually, and for smuggling military supplies (from ammunition to missiles)
and the construction materials needed to buildthe network of attack tunnels in
Gaza.
Importation
through the tunnels (it was in Egypt's political interest that this be referred
to as "smuggling”) was fully controlled by the Hamas government, which levied
a tax on the items and used its huge profits to accelerate its military buildup
and preparation for hostilities with Israel.
During
the Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, Hamas made use of attack
tunnels that were dug opposite IDF positions along the Philadelphi Route. These
tunnels enabled Hamas to lay powerful explosive charges beside the IDF
positions in an effort to destroy them. On June 25, 2006, a joint Hamas/Jaish
al-Islam (an al-Qaeda affiliate) unit infiltrated from Gaza to Israel through a
tunnel whose opening was about a hundred meters from the border in Israeli
territory, near the Kerem Shalom crossing. In that attack, an officer and a
soldier were killed and the soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted.
Hamas, Hizbullah and even North
Korean Tunnels
Based
on Hizbullah's experience in the Second Lebanon War, and with the assistance
and guidance of Iran, Hamas has also made use of the tunnels to build an
underground network of missile launchers. During the Second Lebanon War,
Hizbullah greatly expanded its underground fortifications in Southern Lebanon
with the aid of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) and even North
Korean engineers, who also provided guidance in how to incorporate the tunnels
into Hizbullah's military doctrine.1
Tunnel
warfare provided armies facing a technologically superior adversary with an
effective means for countering its air superiority. For example, atunnel is
opened only briefly to launch rockets and then immediately closed to prevent
detection of the launchers' location by the IDF. The concealment of these
launchers in tunnels, in the heart of the civilian population, makes it very
difficult to detect them in real time and attack them.
The
rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during 2012-2013 was a golden age for
Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood. During the tenure of
President Mohamed Morsi and his foreign policy adviser Khaled al-Kazaz (a
resident of Canada), missiles and a great deal of ammunition moved through the
tunnels to Gaza, along with the materials needed to construct plants and
manufacture missiles.
In
addition to receiving close to half the budget of the Palestinian Authority,
the economic aid the Hamas government received from international actors,
including European countries, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, has helped
it channel significant resources to its military buildup and the construction
of the attack tunnels.
Also
of help to Hamas were Israeli and international human rights organizations,
which constantly pressured Israel to allow the entry of cement and iron into
Gaza for purposes of civilian construction. In reality, these materials mainly
went into building the attack-tunnel network, instead of houses for the
Palestinians.
The
attack tunnels create a new equation in the power balance between Israel and
Hamas. They give Hamas an ability to infiltrate Israel and carry out strategic
attacks involving mass killing, along with an ability to launch missiles from
locations concealed within civilian population centers that serve, in effect,
as human shields. Should Hamas retain in the future 20 tunnels, and dispatch 50
operatives in each, they could deploy 1,000 men behind Israeli lines. The
tunnels would allow Hamas to wreak havoc if they are left in place.
Hizbullah's
tactics, learned from Iran, have been replicated in Gaza, particularly the use
of the tunnels to provide "breathing space” in waging the military
campaign. The Hamas-Hizbullah-Iranian aim is to cause as much harm as possible
to the civilian population and weaken Israel by damaging its economy. Like
Hizbullah, Hamas in the current round has tried to strike strategic targets in
Israel and inflict mass casualties, including the nuclear reactor in Dimona,
the chemical plants in Haifa, and Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Despite
the reconciliation agreement with Fatah and the establishment of the unity
government, one of Hamas's objectives in the war is to ignite another intifada
on the West Bank aimed ultimately at the toppling of Palestinian Authority rule
and instituting a Hamas takeover of the Palestinian national movement. This
current round of fighting highlights the importance of continued Israeli
security control of key areas of the West Bank to prevent a Hamas takeover of
the Palestinian Authority, and the maintenance of minimal defensible borders
should a Palestinian state be established.
Note
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