[News] Gaza tunnels seen as vital tool of Palestinian resistance

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-tunnels-seen-vital-tool-resistance/17216 



  Gaza tunnels seen as vital tool of resistance

Hamza Abu Eltarabesh 
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/hamza-abu-eltarabesh> - 27 June 2016

It was a warm night in Jabaliya, northeast of Gaza City. Abu Zein and 
his wife were fast asleep when what the couple first thought was an 
earthquake shook their bed so hard, its legs buckled.

They immediately jumped up and ran out of the home they had only 
recently moved into after getting married. But outside was quiet. No one 
was stirring, no damage was visible, the ground stayed still.

The only movement came from the shadows where a couple of fighters with 
the Qassam Brigades 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/qassam-brigades>, the military wing 
of Hamas <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hamas>, emerged to ask the 
couple what had happened.

When Abu Zein — who did not want to give his real name for this article 
out of concern for his safety — told them, the fighters promised to 
repair any damage in the couple’s house. The next day, a man turned up 
with tools to repair the damage to the floor and money as compensation 
for the damaged furniture.


    Land of layers

Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza have long used underground 
tunnels as an integral part of their military tactics. In this, they 
have taken a lesson from history. The Vietnamese dug an extensive 
network 
<http://vietnamesekitchen.co.uk/blog/the-secret-tunnels-of-cu-chi> of 
tunnels in their battle against US troops, a network with which the 
American military never got to grips. Hizballah 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hizballah> also went underground to 
resist the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and during Israel’s war on the 
country in 2006.

For Palestinian groups — especially the Qassam Brigades — the tunnels 
serve a multitude of purposes, from smuggling to infiltration to 
shelter. They are the only protection from Israel’s air power and prying 
eyes in the sky. They have also been used offensively, most notably in a 
2004 attack on an Israeli military observation point in Rafah that saw 
five Israeli soldiers killed and in the 2006 capture of Israeli soldier 
Gilad Shalit.

Abu Zein’s story is one of many suggesting that Gaza is now made up of 
layers. Most people live and work above ground. But below — as 
illustrated in a 2015 Al Jazeera documentary 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3rhQ6BWmRI> in which correspondent Wael 
al-Dahdouh gained access to tunnels in the western part of the coastal 
enclave — others, these in military fatigues, go about their business.

Al-Dahdouh’s documentary is eye-opening. It shows the kind of tunnels 
seen on the news: narrow, claustrophobic, snaking their way under the 
surface. But it also shows larger spaces that function as storage rooms, 
bedrooms, living spaces, kitchens and bathrooms.

Tunneling is dangerous work and tunnels are designed from bitter 
experience. Roofs are curved, Qassam members explained to Al Jazeera, as 
flat ceilings collapse more easily. And their use is of utmost strategic 
import to the Palestinian resistance, say observers. They explain, said 
Yousef al-Sharqawi, a retired Palestinian Authority 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority> 
major-general, the ability of the Qassam Brigades to resist repeated, 
prolonged and ferocious Israeli attacks.

Tunnels, al-Sharqawi said, offered fighters shelter, freedom of movement 
and the ability to surprise and in some cases capture Israeli troops.

The Al Jazeera documentary also shows that tunnel engineers have access 
to reasonably sophisticated equipment that is a far cry from the manual 
methods used in the past. Additionally, the tunnels have their own 
communication network, allowing fighters to exchange information without 
risk of interception.


    Risky work

In a chance encounter with a group of diggers from the Qassam Brigades, 
this reporter had an opportunity to ask about their work. Estimates 
vary, but according to the Brigades, as per the Al Jazeera documentary, 
some 4,000 people are engaged in digging tunnels, getting paid between 
$200 and $400 a month.

The work is round the clock, tough and dangerous.

“We suffer breathing problems,” said one of the men, in a coarse voice. 
All of the men remained masked during the brief encounter. “The air is 
not good beneath ground. But we get used to it.”

Another said they overcame their fear of tunnel collapse through faith.

“When we are inside, we trust in God. If something should happen, it 
will be our honor to be martyrs.”

The group left quickly. Security procedures do not allow members of 
Qassam, when bearing the group’s colors, to stay in the open long.

Their bravura notwithstanding, casualties of the tunnel industry are a 
commonplace phenomenon in Gaza. In January, seven young men died 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/palestinian-authority-officer-turns-his-gun-israel> 
after a tunnel collapsed in bad weather.

With such danger involved, it is perhaps not surprising that the Qassam 
Brigades should be keen to advertise the strategic importance of the 
tunnels. At the beginning of the year, the group published a report 
<http://www.alqassam.ps/arabic/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85/9146/%D8%A3%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%B2-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%88%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%8A-%D9%86%D9%81%D8%B0%D8%AA-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%86%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9> 
on its official website citing what it called the “major achievements” 
of the tunnel tactics over the years. Seventy Israeli soldiers were 
killed in 13 operations, according to the report, 129 soldiers were 
injured and two were captured, Shalit in 2006 and Shaul Aaron‬‏ during 
Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza.


    Israel’s costly counter

The Israeli military is certainly taking the tunnels seriously. Tunnels 
are one of the reasons Israel cites to prevent materials such as cement 
and wood from entering Gaza, stymying attempts at rebuilding the 
civilian infrastructure — from sewage networks to housing — badly 
damaged during repeated Israeli assaults.

The military is investing millions in technology to detect tunnels. In 
April, the army claimed to have discovered 
<http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.715048> a tunnel 30 meters 
underground. It has secured US support 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/gaza-laboratory-us-mexico-border-tunnel-warfare> 
in these detection efforts to the tune of $120 million.

None of this deters military leaders in the Qassam Brigades. One 
high-ranking fighter told this reporter in a written reply through an 
intermediary that “nobody can stop our tunnel operations … Israel tries 
to hide its failure to destroy tunnels by blocking the entrance of 
equipment and materials to Gaza.”

Fayez Abu Shamala, a political analyst and professor at Gaza’s al-Aqsa 
University, recently suggested in a Facebook post 
<https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=958123970971765&id=100003225133179> 
that any technological advances on the Israeli side would only be met by 
greater determination on the Palestinian side. A high-ranking source, he 
wrote, “told me that they have recently succeeded in establishing 
offensive tunnels at a depth of 50 meters.”

Destroying the tunnels was the stated goal 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/world/middleeast/tunnels-lead-right-to-heart-of-israeli-fear.html> 
of Israel’s 2014 ground invasion of Gaza and their continued existence 
is an embarrassment to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and a potential 
spark for another conflict. In January, Netanyahu threatened to act with 
“much more force 
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-threatens-to-eclipse-2014-war-to-destroy-gaza-tunnels/>” 
than in the 2014 offensive that killed more than 2,200 people. And the 
appointment last month as defense minister of Avigdor Lieberman, who has 
previously threatened a “thorough cleansing 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/will-lieberman-order-new-attack-gaza/16936>” 
of Gaza, only adds fuel to the fire.

Yet Palestinian resistance leaders maintain the tunnels are of such 
strategic importance as a means of pressure on Israel that the high 
costs are worth it. Of the tunnel Israel detected in April, one leader 
of the Brigades estimated <http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/256399> its 
cost at $4 million and told Lebanon’s /al-Akhbar/ newspaper that an 
average tunnel costs $2 million to dig.

“This cost is nothing compared to their value as an effective military 
tactic,” he said. “They remain a real challenge to Israel.”

/Hamza Abu Eltarabesh is a journalist from Gaza./


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