Recovered handbook outlines Hamas’s tunnel combat strategy

The handbook describes the procedure for moving within the tunnels and how to fire in the confined space for maximum lethality.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A handbook recovered by the IDF from Gaza City’s Zeitoun District in November demonstrate that Hamas developed an extensive combat strategy for tunnel warfare over years, The New York Times reports.

The handbook describes the procedure for moving within the tunnels and how to fire in the confined space for maximum lethality.

The manual gave instructions on how commanders could time to the second how long terrorists would take to travel between certain points in the tunnels.

Although Israel was aware of the tunnel network in Gaza, the complexity and extent of the tunnel network exceeded what Israel’s military had anticipated.

Before the war, Israel estimated the tunnels were 250 miles long, but they have turned out to be double that length.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be running the war from a tunnel in Gaza, approved $225,000 spending on blast doors in tunnels that can protect against airstrikes and ground assaults.

The manual also teaches terrorists how to disguise entrances of tunnels and locate them through GPS.

Hamas members were told to use infrared goggles in the tunnels and to fire from the shoulder to hit the upper body, increasing the odds of killing the soldier.

However, the underground battles the manual prepares terrorists for have not materialized since the IDF is unwilling to enter the tunnels for actual battles.

Instead, Hamas has had to adjust their tactics and ambush Israeli soldiers from outside the tunnels while engaging in hit-and-run attacks, often throwing explosives.

The tunnels have increased the duration of the war, since Israel has been forced to fight both above ground and below.

“The fact that Hamas is hiding in tunnels and managing much of the fighting from there prolongs the war,” an Israeli military official told the New York Times.

However, the IDF has still succeeded in decimating Hamas’s terror infrastructure and forcing terrorists to leave their strongholds in the tunnels.

Destroying tunnels is time-consuming, and eliminating a single section can take many soldiers as long as ten hours.

“I cannot overstate that in any way. The tunnels impact the pace of the operations,” said Daphné Richemond-Barak, a tunnel warfare expert at Reichman University in Israel. “You can’t advance. You can’t secure the terrain.”

“You’re dealing with two wars,” she added. “One on the surface and one on the subsurface.”

Gaza tunnelsgaza warHamas tunnels