Social media users circulated a picture of Israeli army forces extending water pipes from the sea, in what appears to be an attempt to flood Hamas's tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Israeli army is studying the idea of flooding Hamas' tunnels in Gaza with seawater .
The newspaper, citing its sources, said that the Israeli army installed 5 pumping stations near the Beach refugee camp in mid-November. She confirmed that the pumps are capable of pumping water from the Mediterranean Sea to flood the tunnels within a few weeks.
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced the discovery of 800 tunnel openings since the start of the fighting in Gaza and the destruction of about 500 of them, as part of its effort to destroy Hamas’ underground infrastructure.
It was claimed that tunnel openings were detected inside civilian areas, and a number of them were found next to or inside sensitive civilian buildings, such as educational institutions, kindergartens, mosques and children’s playgrounds.
Meanwhile, sources told the Financial Times that the tunnel network established by the Hamas movement is larger than the London Underground network , and is also immune to the Israeli reconnaissance drone.
A former CIA official said that flooding the tunnels in the long term might force Hamas to abandon them, but if salt water were released into them, “this would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis ” in the Strip.