After the Hamas attack, the Israelis said that the Palestinians entered from the sea through a tunnel dug under water.
This has become a new phase in the destructive technology used by Hamas, the technology of underground warfare.
An extensive network of tunnels has been dug under the small coastal strip, equipped with warehouses, bunkers, video cameras and crossing roads for vehicles.
It is noteworthy that the first tunnels in Palestine were dug as soon as the Israelis began building the apartheid wall. Their numbers increased dramatically in Gaza when the Hamas movement came to power in 2007, when Israel imposed a complete siege on the Strip and began bombing the Palestinians.
In response, the Palestinians built hundreds of tunnels to smuggle food, goods, people and weapons. According to the Mossad, Hamas spent more than $300 million on constructing these underground tunnels. It is a real city that the Israelis called “Lower Gaza.”
A small portion of the tunnels are dug by earthmoving machines, but most of them are dug with simple hand tools to hide these places from satellites, spying, and seismic recording devices of the United States and Israel, so that they do not become vulnerable to attacks.
It is noteworthy that the majority of camouflaged sites can be detected from the air and space through thermal emissions emanating from them using highly sensitive sensors, if they are covered with a thin layer of camouflage material. But underground facilities dug to a depth of 20 meters or more under buildings, layers of concrete and building rubble are of course very difficult to discover with any devices whatsoever.
In 2021, Hamas announced that the total length of the tunnels under Gaza towards Egypt and Israel is 500 kilometers. No one knows how tall he is today, two years later.
The most advanced part is the combat part of the fortified tunnels that were dug for the war with Israel. Some are built of prefabricated concrete and iron, and have field hospitals to treat wounded soldiers. Some of them are drilled to a depth of 50 meters, and are difficult to destroy with non-nuclear weapons, and motorcycles and four-wheel drive vehicles with cargo vehicles drive over them, so they are very difficult to discover.
Hides were also established for Hamas' leadership, personnel, and missiles, equipped with water, food, and medicine.
According to Israel, the militants stockpiled supplies for 3 months of all-out war in a complete siege.
The underground passages lead to support points, bombardment with grenade launchers and mortars, and to Israeli sites for launching surprise attacks, mining, and kidnapping soldiers. Some tunnels are equipped with independent telephone communications and electricity.
One of the indicators of the size of the underground military network is the discovery in 2012 by the Israelis of a tunnel from the Gaza Strip to Israel, 2 kilometers long and 20 meters deep, and 800 tons of building materials were used to dig it. Hamas was able to harness the rubble of buildings destroyed by the Israeli bombing to build new, strong and fully equipped tunnels. How can passages and tunnels be discovered underneath?
Israeli tanks begin using laser-guided missiles
Israeli tanks begin using laser-guided missiles
Israeli "Lahat" missiles
Israeli Merkava tanks began using laser-guided LAHAT anti-tank missiles in their military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The media published video clips that showed the launching of these missiles from tank guns.
They are launched from 120 mm smooth-bore cannons, knowing that models of these missiles can also be launched from helicopters. However, illumination of targets is achieved by other devices, including by a reconnaissance aerial drone.
It is noteworthy that the firing range of the LAHAT missile is 8,000 metres, and its dual hollow combat head is capable of penetrating armor 800 meters thick, and the missile attacks the target at an angle of 30 degrees. Its length is 975 mm, its weight at launch is 19 kg, and its speed is 285 meters/second.
It is known that the Hamas army does not have armor that can be destroyed by LAHAT missiles, but the Israeli army uses it to hit firepoints, fortified installations, and tankers.
Some countries had previously paid attention to such munitions. It was tested on the German Leopard 2, the Croatian M-95 Degman, and the Tank EX, as a copy of the Soviet-made T-72 tank equipped with a 120 mm cannon, and the Indian Arjun.
It is noteworthy that modern guided missiles that are fired from tank guns are in the Russian army’s arsenal and are widely used in special military operations.