The israeli troops have started to flood with sea water the tunnels Gaza, the labyrinthine network of underground passages built by Hamas and other Palestinian armed factions to confront invasions of the enclave like the one they now face. The maneuver is in an initial stage, according to ‘The Wall Street Journal’, citing US Government sources, but it appears to be the main strategy conceived by Israel to destroy the hundreds of kilometers of tunnels that serve the Islamist militia to store weapons, hide command centers or operate safe from the intrusive Israeli surveillance apparatus. Like everything in this war, it could have a very high cost for the besieged civilian population of the enclave. Several environmental experts They warn that flooding the tunnels with saline water will destroy the battered Gaza aquifer and will have serious consequences on its ecosystem for generations.
Some videos circulate on the networks with the first maneuvers to flood the tunnelsspecifically through five pumping systems that move water from the Gaza coast to the interior of the Strip, according to the American newspaper. These pipelines are capable of injecting thousands of cubic meters per hour, but it would still take weeks of flooding to cover the vast expanse of burrows. Some in Israel have sounded the alarm, since it is assumed that the hostages still held by Hamas They are hidden in the tunnels. In a leaked conversation last week between his family and the prime minister Binyamin Netanyahuthe first could be heard complaining loudly that the flood could also bury their loved ones.
Nor does the United States, which continues to shield Israel in the UN, despite growing discomfort in the White House’s rhetoric, seem to have it very clear. Either because he doubts that it will be effective, or because of the consequences it could have on the fresh water reserves in the Strip and his punished agricultural sector. When Egypt flooded several tunnels that pierced its border in 2015, on a scale much smaller than that contemplated by Israel, farmers reported severe damage to their crops.
An aquifer in the last
And flooding the subsoil of the Strip with sea water could be a checkmate for a land that Israel is transformed into a uninhabitable wasteland. Even before this last war began, the 97% of the water in Gaza’s only aquifer It was not suitable for human consumption, according to the WHO. An extreme that is explained by its high rates of contamination by agrochemicals and wastewater. Among other things, because in the 17 years of blockade border, Israel has vetoed the entry of many of the materials necessary to repair the water network and the sewage system, repeatedly destroyed in the five wars of the last three decades.
So there’s not much left to destroy. “The negative impact on the underground water “It could last for several generations, depending on how much (saline) water infiltrates into the subsoil,” the Israeli professor has warned. Eilon Adar from the Institute for Water Research at Ben Gurion University. Adar has urged caution “despite the disaster we suffered on October 7,” when Hamas killed 1,200 people in an unprecedented attack on southern Israel. “In the long term, and we have to think about the future, it would be politically and morally incorrect to have a thirsty neighbor,” he added in an interview with ‘The Times of Israel’.
Depopulation and 100 years for regeneration
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The director of the Palestinian Hydrological Group. “Israel needs 40 days to flood the tunnels with sea water,” said Abdel-Rahman al-Tamimi. “This will cause the accumulation of salt and the collapse of the soil, with the consequent demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes.” According to Al Tamimi, if Israel proceeds with its plans, “the Gaza Strip will become a depopulated place and 100 years for the environment to recover of the damages of this war.
The Jewish State has barely given details about its plans in this regard, since everything related to its strategy to destroy the tunnels is classified information.