Flooding of Gaza terror tunnels a success, IDF says

Army spokesperson says first attempt to pump seawater into Hamas terror tunnels is a success.

By World Israel News Staff

A test run of Israel’s plan to flood terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip with seawater has proven to be a success, an IDF spokesperson said Thursday.

Speaking with The Times of Israel, the spokesperson confirmed a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday which claimed that the Israeli military had begun pumping seawater into Hamas tunnels, as part of the ongoing ground campaign against the terror organization.

Hamas, in contrast, downplayed the effectiveness of the flooding.

Osama Hamdan, a member of the terror group, said Hamas’ tunnels could withstand flooding.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters Thursday that the efforts to destroy Gaza terror tunnels have taken into account the locations of Israeli captives still being held in the coastal enclave.

Roughly 135 hostages are still believed to be alive.

Hagari said the army has intelligence indicating the locations of the captives, and is carefully avoiding putting them in harms way.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden noted Israeli claims that the flooding of Hamas terror tunnels was carefully avoiding those tunnels where hostages are being kept, but said he could not confirm if the tunnels being targeted are in fact free of hostages.

“With regard to the flooding of the tunnels… There [are] assertions being made that there [are] no hostages in any of these tunnels, but I don’t know that for a fact,” Biden said.