Israel has yet to destroy even half of Gaza’s tunnels
But its forces may soon have to oversee a massive humanitarian operation
Destroying the network of tunnels built over the past 16 years by Hamas, the militant movement that has run Gaza since 2007, is one of Israel’s chief war aims. At the start of the conflict Israel estimated that it stretched to hundreds of kilometres. Today security officials concede that this is probably an underestimate. And while the war has been raging for over three months and Israel has killed over 23,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, the Israel Defence Forces (idf) calculates that it has yet to destroy even half the tunnels.
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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “The dilemmas multiply”
Middle East & Africa January 13th 2024
From the January 13th 2024 edition
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