IDF prepares new training to counter Hamas tunnels
As the military's engineering corps continue searching for other sections of the recently-discovered tunnel, the army trains for underground combat, and teaches regular battalions to find and block tunnels.
The IDF will continue work to uncover all sections of the recently-discovered Hamas tunnel over the next few weeks to ensure that there are no other exit shafts inside Israel, as it is unclear how far the tunnel penetrated into Israeli territory.
Simultaneously, the defense establishment is developing a system to combat the Gaza tunnels threat which is due to be completed within two years. This system will include engineering and technological measures to detect and destroy the tunnels and will supplement the border fence.
The new method that was used to discover the Hamas tunnel, which combines military, intelligence and engineering strategies, will be put to use in the coming days in several other areas along the Gaza border where the IDF is digging in search of any additional cross-border tunnels. It's expected to be fully operational all across the border soon.
Fighting inside the tunnels
The IDF faces a new reality whereby it's forced not only to locate tunnels, but also fight inside them. Since Operation Protective Edge, the IDF has formulated new strategies to prevent the kidnappings of the bodies of soliders killed in action - such as what befell Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul - as well as the kidnapping of live Israeli citizens and soldiers, like what happened to Gilad Shalit.
Moreover, the IDF has augmented its infantry battalions with a wide array of equipment specifically designed for tunnel combat. These include, amongst other tools, mini walkie talkies which can function underground, oxygen masks, night-vision equipment which can be used in complete darkness, handguns, and lighter body armor.
The new phenomenon is so serious that a new combat doctrine was specifically written for tunnel combat, and it addressed every soldier in the army from the the infantry battalion level to special forces.
At present, the solution to the tunnels is divided into two parts: the first is the discovery and identification of cross-border tunnels both during war and peacetime. Hamas plans to use these tunnels to send dozens of fighters from its elite "Nukba" unit into Israel with the aim of killing and kidnapping Israeli civilians. The second part focuses on IDF soldiers' ability to fight inside the terror tunnels during the next war - either in Gaza or in southern Lebanon.
Hamas was able to deliver heavy blows to the IDF using its tunnels throughout Operation Protective Edge and exact a painful price in its subterranean infiltrations of the Be'eri Forest near Kibbutz Nir Am and the pillbox near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The bodies of the two IDF soldier killed during Protective Edge were snatched by Hamas militants via tunnels located inside the Gaza Strip.
In the past, a combat unit operating in enemy territory that discovered a tunnel needed to call in Yahalom (a special forces unit affiliated with the IDF combat engineers) or other special forces units to deal with it. With the new system, any battalion will be able to quickly and effectively neutralize the tunnel threat.
“We already have clear instructions as to what our forces need to do when finding a tunnel,” a commander of a regular division told Ynet. “The answer is multi-faceted and depends on the severity of the threat and our needs at that moment. An infantry battalion knows today how to locate a entry shaft, how to block it, and prevent an enemy from exiting from it,” he continued.
Meanwhile, the Yahalom unit has become an essential component in the military since Operation Protective Edge as is shown by its significant increase in size.
While the commander said that the tunnels constitute a significant but not existential threat, he noted that “We are not overlooking it and we look into every single report of sounds of digging.”
Indeed, statements made by Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot appear to support the commander’s conclusions. While he too said that the location and destruction of the tunnels was “the number one objective,” he added that the “the tunnels are not a strategic threat. Just last week we completed additional training for dealing with the tunnels. We acquired the necessary combat equipment to handle them, and we created an intelligence booklet detailing information on all 25 divisions of Hamas,” Eizenkot said.
Whatever the extent of the threat, his final conclusions may have put the public slightly more at ease. “Of all things, the threat of the tunnels in the Gaza Strip is easier to take care of.”
