<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" lang="en-US" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israel-has-just-begun-flooding-gaza-tunnels-what-it-means/">palestinechronicle.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel Has Just Begun Flooding Gaza Tunnels - What It Means</h1>December 12, 2023<br></div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Water_Tunnels_social.png" alt="" title="Water_Tunnels_social" width="440" height="295" style="margin-right: 25px;">
Israel plans to pump seawater into Gaza tunnels. (Image: Social media)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/palestine-chronicle-editors" title="Display all articles for Palestine Chronicle Editors">Palestine Chronicle Editors</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<h3><span>The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel has begun the process of flooding the tunnels of Gaza. But will it work? </span></h3>
</blockquote>
<p><span>About ten years ago, the Egyptian military, at the behest of Washington and Tel Aviv, began </span><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/9/18/egypt-floods-gaza-tunnels-used-for-smuggling"><span>flooding</span></a><span> tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt. </span></p>
<p><span>Back then, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had just overthrown Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. </span></p>
<p><span>He needed much political capital to remain in power and to
stave off any potential US criticism, however superficial, for his
overthrow of a democratically-elected president. </span></p>
<p><span>To do so, Sisi needed to present himself to Washington as a
reliable ally – and the best way of doing so was to crack down on
Palestinians, and their Resistance. </span></p>
<p><span>Quickly, the US jumped onto the opportunity of supporting any
Israeli efforts aimed at further tightening the Israeli siege on Gaza. </span></p>
<p><span>In no time, Egypt began flooding the tunnels with sewage water.
Aside from the environmental disaster sewage water has caused, this
also led to the death of many Palestinians, including people trying to
escape the siege, along with some of those involved in the thriving
tunnel business. </span></p>
<h4><b>Siege and Tunnels </b></h4>
<p><span>Since 2007, Gaza has been under a hermetic Israeli siege. Egypt
participated in the siege by preventing Palestinians from using the
Rafah Crossing as an alternative route for commercial goods – food,
fuel, construction material, etc. </span></p>
<p><span>Also, Egypt has repeatedly shut down the Rafah Crossing,
leaving thousands of Palestinians stranded on both sides of the border. </span></p>
<p><span>With the destruction of the tunnels, one of the very few
lifelines remaining in the hands of the Palestinians in Gaza was
severed. Their besiegement of Palestinians was now complete. </span></p>
<p><span>But, judging from the events of October 7, and the strong
Palestinian Resistance in the Strip since then, it does not seem that
the Resistance itself was greatly affected by Egypt’s US-backed strategy
of destroying the Gaza tunnels using various strategies</span></p>
<p><span>Under the title “Floods and Bombs: This is How Egypt Handled
Hamas’ Smuggling Tunnels”, the Israeli newspaper Yisrael Hayom was one
of the many Israeli media that </span><a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/10/22/floods-and-bombs-this-is-how-egypt-handled-hamas-smuggling-tunnels/"><span>made</span></a><span> the link between the Egyptian strategy and what they believe Israel should be doing in Gaza at the moment. </span></p>
<p><span>On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-takes-fight-against-hamas-to-vast-tunnel-network-2ed3b3f2"><span>reported</span></a><span> that the Israeli army has in fact begun utilizing the Egyptian strategy, namely pumping seawater into the Resistance tunnels. </span></p>
<p><span>Satellite images </span><a href="https://www.skynewsarabia.com/middle-east/1676863-%D8%A7%D9%95%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%94%D9%86%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%82-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%94%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%95%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%94%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B0-%D8%AE%D8%B7%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%9F"><span>analyzed</span></a><span>
by various media organizations, including NBC News, have shown massive
water pipes starting at the Mediterranean Sea and ending in various
parts of the coast of the Gaza Strip. </span></p>
<h4><b>War Crime </b></h4>
<p><span>While the Americans are, expectedly, enthusiastic about the
idea of flooding the Gaza tunnels as a last resort of defeating the
Resistance, others have warned against such a step.</span></p>
<p><span>Dmitry Polianskiy, the First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN,</span> <span>for example, has warned that flooding the underground of Gaza with seawater is a war crime. </span></p>
<p><span>War crime because it would pollute an already highly salinized
underground water in Gaza, as well as irreversibly damage the
environment. </span></p>
<p><span>Additionally, according to Polianskiy, many Palestinian
civilians are most likely hiding underground to escape the horrors of
the Israeli war, which has, so far, killed over 18,000 people. </span></p>
<p><b>Desperate Measures</b></p>
<p><span>Palestinian writer and analyst Ramzy Baroud said that “flooding
some of the tunnels is in itself, as cruel as it is, an act of
desperation, simply because it is based on the erroneous understanding
that the tunnel networks are connected in such a way that flooding one
tunnel in Beit Layha, in the north, would somehow flood another in
Rafah, in the south.”</span></p>
<p><span>“Due to the horrific tunnel-flooding experience by Egypt, and
the anticipation that Israel would certainly resort to such an option,
the Resistance tunnels are made in such a way that it would allow them
to accommodate even such desperate and cruel tactics,” Baroud added.</span></p>
<p><span>Indeed, while all sides of the Gaza tunnels are made of
fortified concrete, the ground is always left in its original material,
basically compact sand and dirt.</span></p>
<p><span>According to experts, the construction of the tunnel is made to
accommodate the possibility of intentional or natural flooding, which
happens quite often each winter in Gaza. </span></p>
<p><span>Moreover, the fact that Israelis, US and their Western allies
have been peddling the idea of flooding the tunnels as one of the main
strategies in defeating the Resistance, has given Palestinians enough
time to prepare for such eventuality. </span></p>
<p><span>“For Israel to succeed in flooding the tunnels, they would have
to establish full control over Gaza first, identify the location of all
tunnels, and start the process of slowly pumping seawater, which would
take months,” Baroud said, “a time that Israel does not have considering
its heavy losses due to the stiff Resistance in Gaza.”</span></p>
<p><i><span>(The Palestine Chronicle) </span></i></p>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>