Since taking over the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has completed a complex underground network 25 meters deep that the Israeli army has not yet been able to destroy. This underground “city,” nicknamed the “Gaza Metro,” was where the hostages of the October 7 attack were held.
Unsurprisingly, there’s little information about this underground labyrinth, but here’s what we know so far.
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500 tunnels
According to Arab media AlJazeera, which published a report on the issue in 2014, there are more than 500 tunnels under the Gaza Strip. This year, Israeli forces were determined to wipe this underground city off the map, but failed miserably. They outright failed and 32 tunnels were destroyed. These tunnels are used to supply smuggled food, fuel and weapons to the 2.3 million Palestinian population, particularly on the Egyptian side.
Photo JACK GUEZ / AFP
Terror Tunnel
The Palestinian fighters emerging from these tunnels on Israeli soil provoke what is known in Israel as “tunnel terror.” Rocket launchers can also be installed there, which are almost invisible to Israeli defense systems. The Wall Street Journal reported in July 2014 that a three-mile-long underground gallery equipped with telephone lines and autonomous booths was apparently “designated for executions and hostage detention.”
Sacrifice the hostages?
For François Audet, director of the Canadian Observatory on Humanitarian Crises and Action and professor at UQAM, this underground network makes rescue operations even riskier than on land. “I and several observers fear that the Israeli army will receive orders to level everything and even sacrifice the hostages currently being held by Hamas members,” he told the Journal. There would be no safe place at the moment other than two secure warehouses where a few thousand people are crowded together. All other locations are the target of Israeli military retaliation, making humanitarian operations extremely risky.
600,000 tons of concrete
According to the American media Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, the construction of the tunnels cost Hamas around 90 million dollars and required 600,000 tons of concrete. According to AlJazeera, the illicit trade in these tunnels would bring up to $700 million annually to the Gaza economy and create jobs for 7,000 people.
Photo JACK GUEZ / AFP
Violations
With an area similar to the island of Montreal, the Gaza Strip is surrounded by a huge concrete wall that the Israeli government considers impassable. The soldiers guarding this barrier are under orders to shoot any suspicious person immediately. But the tunnel network includes at least three breakthroughs under the wall, with entrances in the cities of Khan Yunis, Jabalia and Shati.
Accidents
These tunnels reach a depth of up to 25 meters and some are very dangerous due to the secrecy of these structures, which can collapse at any time. Hamas itself reported 22 accidental deaths in 2017.
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