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Gaza Tunnels Pose Challenge to Israel in War on Hamas

Islamic Jihad fighters guard a Gaza tunnel in March. (Getty Images)
Islamic Jihad fighters guard a Gaza tunnel in March. (Getty Images)
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Gaza Tunnels Pose Challenge to Israel in War on Hamas

Islamic Jihad fighters guard a Gaza tunnel in March. (Getty Images)
Islamic Jihad fighters guard a Gaza tunnel in March. (Getty Images)

Exactly ten years ago in October 2012, Israel announced the discovery of the “first offensive tunnel” in the Gaza Strip. The tunnel stretched 800 meters, from Khan Younis to a hundred meters into Israeli territory, and was 20 meters deep underground and was two meters in width and height.

Israel did not find any weapons or explosives in the tunnel, with experts speculating that Hamas was using it to kidnap Israeli soldiers. A major Israeli military commander declared to Haaretz at the time: “We will make them regret this and we will push them to despair.”

The army destroyed the tunnel, as it did others it had previously discovered. The military even set up a unit dedicated to the destruction of tunnels. It included scientists whose task was to build electronic devices that can detect the underground passages.

Then commander of the Southern Command Yoav Gallant said: “It is a war of minds between us and Hamas. We are waging it for one sole purpose: victory.” Gallant is now defense minister, and the tunnels now extend far and wide in Gaza. He still speaks of “victory” and even of genocide.

In the past ten years, the Israeli army realized that it could not eliminate the tunnel phenomenon. Rather, the tunnels have since grown and become more developed. At first, they were built to allow Hamas fighters to counter Israeli ground attacks and ambush their troops.

They then used them to kidnap soldiers and succeeded in 2014. Two soldiers were kidnapped, and they are still held by Hamas. Israel then decided to build a massive wall, stretching 65 kilometers, above and below ground to prevent Hamas from building tunnels that can extend into Israeli territory. The wall cost Israel a billion dollars, but Hamas only needed to hire contractor for 200 dollars so he can drive bulldozer into the wall and destroy a portion of it.

The movement then expanded the tunnels deep into Gaza. It constructed a massive network that can only be compared to ones in North Korea. The Israelis have not ruled out the possibility that Pyongyang, not just Tehran, may have aided Hamas in the planning.

Furthermore, Hamas may have even benefited from Israeli expertise. In 1980, it had built a whole underground floor under al-Shifa hospital in Gaza when it was still occupying the enclave.

Underground fortress

Israel preoccupied itself in recent years in monitoring the expansion of the tunnels in Gaza and inside its own territories. To destroy some of the tunnels, it used a material that would expand and harden and use up all empty space, sealing off the tunnels.

Meanwhile, Hamas took its time in enlarging its network of tunnels in Gaza. The tunnels now total around 1,300, reaching around 70 meters underground and extending 500 kilometers. Jacob Nagel, former head of Israel's National Security Council, said the tunnels are probably even longer than that, extending thousands of kilometers.

The Israeli army has claimed that it has “detailed maps” of the tunnels and was preparing the right plans to turn them into “graveyards” for Hamas leaders, who in turn, have said that the tunnels have been heavily developed in the past two years. The technology there will shock the Israelis and turn them into a huge trap for its soldiers, they have warned.

The tunnels have become a major headline of the Gaza war. Hamas leaders and some 20,000 fighters are using the tunnels, which are like an underground fortress.

'Lower Gaza’

There isn’t exactly a life in the tunnels given how difficult it can be to live there. However, they are more than just long passageways that the word tunnel implies. Hamas has in fact built an actual city - “Lower Gaza” - under Gaza. Some people have spoken of two Gazas under the ground, meaning that there is actually a third Gaza below the underground city.

The network boasts rest areas, meeting rooms, and sleeping areas. It is fully equipped and features a modern ventilation system. It holds storage for food, medicine and fuel and has its own encrypted telecommunications system that Israel has failed in deciphering, as demonstrated in Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7.

Israel has weighed its option in how to destroy the tunnels. Experts said it could seal them off with a foam material that expands and hardens in empty spaces and could enlarge to several meters thick. It could use vacuum bombs to destroy them and kill everyone using them. Hamas has stated it is aware of the options at Israel’s disposal and its fighters are ready to defy it.

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Proposal of Merging Hezbollah Fighters with Lebanese Army Collides with Reality

Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of former Secretary-General Hashem Safieddine during his funeral on February 24, 2025. (AP)
Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of former Secretary-General Hashem Safieddine during his funeral on February 24, 2025. (AP)
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Proposal of Merging Hezbollah Fighters with Lebanese Army Collides with Reality

Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of former Secretary-General Hashem Safieddine during his funeral on February 24, 2025. (AP)
Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of former Secretary-General Hashem Safieddine during his funeral on February 24, 2025. (AP)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s proposal for Hezbollah fighters to be merged with the army has been met with skepticism and provided fodder for political debate.

Aoun had suggested that the members be merged into the military the same way militia members, who were active during the 1975-90 civil war, were merged into the army.

The proposal has not been widely welcomed given the army’s inability to accommodate so many new members for various reasons. Experts who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat dismissed the proposal as a “consolation prize for Hezbollah in exchange for it to lay down its weapons to the state.”

They stressed that it would be impossible for members of an ideological group, who have received ideological training, to be part of the army.

Aoun, the former commander of the army, said it wouldn’t be possible to form a new military unit for the Hezbollah members, so they should instead join the army and sit for training, similar to the training former militants sat for at the end of the civil war.

Member of the Lebanese Forces’ parliamentary bloc MP Ghayath Yazbeck said the army simply cannot accommodate 100,000 Hezbollah fighters.

“Even if Hezbollah had 25,000 fighters, it would be impossible to merge them into the army, whose wages are being paid through foreign assistance,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Moreover, Lebanon needs a national defense strategy that should be drafted by the military with the president and government, he went on to say. The strategy does not stipulate how many members of the army and security forces are needed to protect Lebanon.

“Once the borders are demarcated and the reasons for the war are removed, we can embark on a political solution in Lebanon and ultimately, the current number of officers and soldiers will be enough,” Yazbeck said.

Former Lebanese officer and expert in security and military affairs Khaled Hamadeh said Aoun is trying to appease Hezbollah with his proposal and persuade it to lay down its arms in line with the ceasefire agreement.

The agreement was negotiated with Hezbollah ally parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, so it has the party’s approval.

There are several obstacles to Hezbollah members being merged into the army, Hamadeh said.

“Yes, the Lebanese state had succeeded in stopping the civil war and making hundreds of militia fighters join the army and security forces. But we cannot compare that situation to the one we now have with Hezbollah,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

At the end of the civil war, militias leaders signed and recognized the national pact and announced the dissolution of the militias. They then voluntarily handed over their arms to the state and became part of the political process, he explained.

Today, Iran-backed Hezbollah does not acknowledge the ceasefire agreement and has not agreed to turn over its weapons, he noted. The party does not even recognize that it is part of the political process and that its military wing has been destroyed by Israel, so the idea of merging with the army is “out of place.”

Yazbeck also noted Hezbollah’s ideology, saying it was the “greatest obstacle to its fighters’ merging with the army.”

“The party views Lebanon as a geographic extension of Iran. This ideology still stands, and was demonstrated with Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem’s declaration that the party will not disarm and that it is not concerned with talk about the state’s monopoly over arms,” he added.

Hamadeh echoed these remarks, saying that the civil war militias were Lebanese and took their orders from their Lebanese leaders. They chose to lay down their weapons and abide by Lebanese laws and the country's constitution.

As for Hezbollah, its takes orders from Iran and “has played dangerous military or security roles inside Lebanon and beyond,” he continued.

“Hezbollah has not declared its disengagement from Tehran. It has not declared that it will transform itself into a local political party and that it will dissolve its military wing. Once it does so, then we can talk about accommodating its fighters in the military,” stressed Hamadeh.

“How can we reconcile between a military group that follows the Wilayet al-Faqih ideology (...) and another that works under the constitution and according to democratic mechanisms?” he wondered.

Moreover, he asked: “Was the experience of merging the militias into the state’s civil and security agencies so successful that we should even be repeating it?”

Yazbeck noted that civil war militants were not really merged with the army as some would like to claim.

He explained that those who joined the security and military institutions were in a fact close to the Syrian regime, which was controlling Lebanon at the time.

“The fighters who were fighting for state sovereignty and who confronted Syrian occupation were persecuted and thrown in jail, so many were forced to flee Lebanon,” he revealed.

Furthermore, the level of discipline showed by the army does not apply to Hezbollah fighters. “Militias simply do not gel with army and the army does not gel with them either,” he stated.

Ultimately, said Hamadeh, whatever happens, Hezbollah must first hand over its weapons to the state. “Only then can its members choose to sit for assessments to enter state administrations – placing them on equal footing as other Lebanese citizens,” he added.

Hezbollah members are not isolated from society, and they must be merged, however, proposing their merger in an attempt to persuade them to lay down their arms will ultimately fail, he said.

Above all else, the party must first recognize the state and its right to monopoly over arms and decisions of war and peace, he urged.