Israel Sets Tunnel Demolition as Gaza War’s New Center of Gravity
In a new report for The Media Line, Keren Setton explains how Israel has recentered the Gaza fight underground: Defense Minister Israel Katz says roughly 60% of Hamas’ tunnels remain and has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to make demolition the “central task” inside the Gaza “yellow zone” created by the US-brokered ceasefire. Katz says Israel is coordinating with Washington on how to tackle tunnels in areas outside Israeli control while protecting troops and nearby communities.
Setton lays out why this is no routine engineering job. Hamas’ multi-layered “metro” links command posts, workshops, storage, and former hostage sites, with thousands of shafts embedded in dense neighborhoods. Military historian Guy Aviad tells The Media Line the network is a “game changer” that blunts Israel’s edge; many segments can be bypassed or repaired during lulls. Civil engineer Yehuda Kfir, a former IDF underground warfare officer, argues Western militaries face a “technological gap” below ground: ground-penetrating radar falters in mixed urban terrain, seismic and acoustic tools are noisy, and flooding or thermobaric options can endanger civilians while leaving usable spurs.
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The ceasefire’s next phase calls for Hamas to disarm, but the public text doesn’t explicitly address tunnels—the core of the group’s command and logistics. Aviad warns there’s “no way to reach every single shaft” without full territorial control, a reality at odds with Israel’s drawdown under the truce. Kfir says Israel must learn to “operate in the underground,” blending persistent find-and-fix raids, hardened monitoring, specialized engineering units, and new detection suites—plus mechanisms with the US for areas beyond Israeli reach.
Setton’s article traces how past wars misjudged tunnel depth and scale, why percentages can mislead, and what success would actually look like. Read the full piece for the on-the-ground methods, legal constraints, and strategic stakes.
