IDF Chief Suggests Israel May Flood Hamas Tunnels with Seawater

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi suggested Tuesday that it might be a “good idea” to flood the Hamas terror tunnels in Gaza with seawater, commenting on a report in the Wall Street Journal that Israel was thinking about it.

The Journal report stated: “Israel has assembled a system of large pumps it could use to flood Hamas’s vast network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip with seawater, a tactic that could destroy the tunnels and drive the fighters from their underground refuge but also threaten Gaza’s water supply, U.S. officials said.”

It was not clear whether the report was credible, given that the Journal had been inaccurate in its report that Israel and Hamas had agreed to pause fighting for an eighth day; Hamas broke the truce shortly thereafter.

But Halevi appeared to give credence to the report, as the Times of Israel noted Tuesday:

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi appeared to confirm on Tuesday a report that Israel aims to flood Hamas’s tunnel network in the Gaza Strip, calling it “a good idea.”

…

“We have various ways [to deal with the tunnels], I won’t talk about specifics, but they include explosives to destroy, and other means to prevent Hamas operatives from using the tunnels to harm our soldiers,” he said.

“Therefore, any means which give us an advantage over the enemy that [uses the tunnels], deprives it of this asset, is a means that we are evaluating using. This is a good idea, but I won’t comment on its specifics,” Halevi added.

Flooding the tunnels could create other problems. It could harm some of the Israeli hostages, who may be imprisoned in the tunnels. It could also further undermine the structural integrity of Gaza’s buildings, already damaged by bombing.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.