"Installation of 5 Large Pumps in Gaza Strip"
Concerns Raised Over Effectiveness and Groundwater Contamination
The Israeli military is reportedly planning an operation to flood underground tunnels where members of the Palestinian armed group Hamas are hiding by pumping seawater into them. This move is seen as an attempt to tackle the difficulty of clearing the thousands of underground tunnels believed to be scattered throughout the Gaza Strip.
However, due to a lack of detailed information about the structure of each tunnel, there are doubts about the effectiveness of the operation, as it is unclear whether flooding with large amounts of seawater will submerge all the tunnels. Additionally, concerns have been raised that the operation could worsen the humanitarian crisis by contaminating Gaza’s vital groundwater and significantly reducing the supply of drinking water.
On the 4th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) cited U.S. government officials, reporting that "the Israeli military installed at least five large pumps last month around 4 km north of the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza to draw seawater," adding, "These pumps can pull seawater from the Mediterranean and flood Hamas’s underground tunnels within weeks."
According to these officials, the Israeli government notified the U.S. of the flooding operation plan in early last month, and discussions are ongoing within the U.S. government regarding the feasibility, effectiveness, and environmental impact of the plan.
The WSJ also reported that while the Israeli government has formulated the flooding operation plan, it has not set a specific start date. An Israeli military official declined to comment on the flooding plan to the WSJ, stating only that "the Israeli military is conducting operations using various military and technical means to dismantle Hamas’s terrorist capabilities."
The WSJ analyzed that it is difficult to consider executing the operation easily, as Hamas is still holding around 130 hostages, and the exact structure of the thousands of interconnected Hamas tunnels is unknown, making it uncertain how effective flooding would be.
Concerns have also been raised that using seawater for flooding could worsen groundwater contamination and drinking water shortages in the Gaza Strip. According to the United Nations, one of the three water pipelines from Israel to Gaza has already been completely cut off since the war. The water flow through the remaining two pipelines has sharply decreased, dropping from a pre-war maximum of about 83 liters per day to just 3 liters after the war.
Previously, in 2015, the Egyptian government also conducted a flooding operation by pumping seawater into underground tunnels along the border with Gaza to prevent smugglers from passing through. However, this operation faced criticism as nearby farmers suffered damage to their crops.
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