The Sandhogs of Hamas

“How now, old mole! Canst work i’ th’ earth so fast? A worthy pioner!”

Those fiendishly energetic sandhogs of Hamas, filled with the manic energy of their murderous hate, have dug a fantastic network of tunnels — deeper, longer, taller, wider, and fitted out with more elaborate living spaces for its big shots — than anything the Israelis had previously imagined. Hamas created under Gaza another Gaza, meant to hide and transport both men and weapons, all over the Strip, safely underground. This vast network must have cost billions of dollars to build, money that might have gone to improve the lot of the people of Gaza. But Hamas had other ideas. With the money left after the three top Hamas leaders — Khaled Meshaal, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mousa Abu Marzouk — took their cut of eleven billion dollars from what donors had intended be given to the people of Gaza, Hamas built these tunnels, some 300 miles of them (the Israelis had previously thought there were 60 miles of tunnels) snaking deep through the earth beneath the Strip.

More on the most recent network of tunnels uncovered by the IDF, found under Palestine Square in the very center of Gaza City, and now reduced to rubble by Israeli engineers, can be found here: “IDF destroys Hamas terror leaders’ Gaza City tunnel network,” Jerusalem Post, December 21, 2023:

Soldiers for the Yahalom special operations unit of the IDF’s Combat Engineering Corps, along with troops from the 401st Brigade combat team, destroyed the secret underground web of tunnels seized on Wednesday by Israeli forces, the IDF said on Thursday.

The demolition of the subterranean structure followed the revelation that the IDF had taken control of Hamas’s Gaza City “senior quarter,” the IDF added. The network of tunnel branches reportedly contained apartments, offices, and living quarters of senior Hamas officials.

All the comforts of home can be found in those tunnels built for Hamas leaders to live in, with none of the worries about Israeli airstrikes that the Gazans above ground face: the Hamas big shots have their well-appointed living quarters below ground and their offices a step away, while the people above must follow IDF warnings and scurry to safety, away from the “civilian” buildings — schools, mosques, apartment buildings, hospitals — where Hamas deliberately places its rocket launchers, stores its weapons, and hides its combatants.

The tunnels led to above-ground sites in the Shejaia neighborhood’s Palestine Square.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday that Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, and Muhammad Deif had used this network to manage the organization’s operation and movement through the center of Gaza City, which has nicknamed the area “Commander’s Square.”

Colonel Beni Aharon noted that the tunnels were used to store equipment taken from civilians that could enable Hamas leadership to shelter there for an extended period of time.

Further, the location of the tunnels was apparently strategically constructed in an area between a high-class residential area that includes a college, a hotel, a school for the deaf, and a fancy bridal shop.

The demolition of the tunnel network was carried out in a controlled manner, the IDF reported.

The IDF had uncovered, by the beginning of December, about 900 tunnels, with more being discovered almost every day. And it believes that there are a total of 300 miles of tunnels in toto, five times longer than it had previously believed. But the kind of above-ground destruction of buildings to get at the tunnels beneath, which was what the IDF engaged in during the first month of the war in Gaza City, will not be possible, according to the IDF tunnel expert (now retired) Yehuda Kfir, in south and central Gaza. He has said the following: “The IDF method [for discovering tunnels] is frustrating and we can’t keep using it, because it involves destroying infrastructure and buildings above ground in order to get to what’s underneath. In the first stage [of the ground offensive], the IDF had a broad mandate for widespread destruction [as it sought to dismantle Hamas]. Obviously, we can’t uncover tunnels in that way in Khan Younis and Rafah, so deciphering what’s going on underground will have to be done another way — to reveal what’s underground without destroying the buildings and infrastructure above. I believe the way to do it is by digging from our side toward them, while inserting smart tools — sensors, microphones and robots, anything that can penetrate the tunnels and bring us intelligence on where they’re located. I’m talking even about some sort of underground torpedo, launching an excavation machine with explosives capabilities, at the right time. We need to change the approach — to attacking the tunnels from within.”

This destruction of Hamas’ tunnel network will take many months. Will the Bidenites give Israel the time it needs to complete its task, or will it impatiently insist that the IDF “wrap things up”? If the IDF can follow Kfir’s advice, and find a way to uncover tunnels without destroying the structures on top, that should buy it more time. Hope for the best, and plan for the worst.

But one thing that the IDF can do, right now, is to drop millions of leaflets all over Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah, providing stats on the tunnels: how many have been uncovered, how many have been, or will be, destroyed, what kinds of underground accommodations Hamas leaders have and — above all — how much those tunnels have cost.

The leaflets should contain the following:

1. There are 300 miles of tunnels in the “Hamas subway.” Some have been dug 50 meters under the surface.

2. These tunnels are elaborate affairs, and the total cost of building them was, at a minimum, X billions of dollars. (The estimate should both stagger, and enrage, Gazans.)

3. Save for Yahya Sinwar, his brother Muhammad, and Muhammad Deif, all the Hamas leaders are living in luxury, either in Qatar or in Turkey, far from the wretchedness of Gaza.

4. Three Hamas leaders — Khaled Meshaal, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mousa ibn Marzouk — stole from you, the people of Gaza, 11 billion dollars.

5. These are the facts, people of Gaza. This is how Hamas leaders have spent your money. On the tunnels, which are now being systematically destroyed, and even more money, on themselves. What will you do to free yourselves from these tyrants?

A few million copies of this one-page leaflet dropped from the skies over Gaza could have an incendiary effect. Give it a try, Israeli Air Force. Run it up that figurative flag pole, and see if anyone salutes.