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Hamas tunnels flooded with seawater, a war tactic that may make Gaza uninhabitable. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-12-13

The IDF has for a month been flooding Hamass’ network of tunnels with seawater in an apparent effort to flush out and drown terrorists while hoping no hostages will be harmed in the process. The story was reported in yesterday's Wall Street Journal - behind a paywall. Experts had warned the Israeli government that flooding Gaza with seawater could make life in Gaza impossible for generations by eliminating freshwater availability and likely threatening agricultural land by poisoning the soil where nothing will be able to grow. Desertification in Gaza is widespread as a result of Israeli water policies toward Gaza.

The only freshwater available in Gaza is from an aquifer parallel to the Mediterranean Sea. The aquifer was already stressed due to overpumping, which allowed saltwater, agricultural runoff, and sewage to seep in and mix with the freshwater. The shallow aquifer is at severe risk of being unusable for drinking water.

Environmental experts asked that the IDF carefully weigh the consequences of pumping vast amounts of seawater into the Gaza Strip. The portion of the aquifer in Isreal is upstream and would not become poisoned, though Southern Israel’s portion of the Aquifer could be contaminated if enough seawater is pumped in from the sea. This may be necessary due to the sandstone that would require multiple flooding efforts to have an impact on killing the occupants in the tunnel network.

In an ideal world, rainfall percolates through the soil, and the sandstone bed replenishes the aquifer. People across the planet pump that water into wells where it is used as drinking water and growing crops.

Freshwater access has been denied to Gaza for generations. Palestinians on the strip need to have water delivered by truck or rely on small desalination plants (which no longer operate due to the bombing of water infrastructure and lack of fuel to power the pumps) for drinking water.

Source: Israel Defense Forces

Graphic: Amy O'Kruk, CNN

From the Israeli Times:

Another water expert, who asked not to be named, said tunnels, carved out of porous sand, would need to be flooded several times. Some of them were built to bring terrorists into Israel, he added. If seawater entered those sections, it could salinate Israeli wells close to the Gaza border. Prof. Hadas Mamane, who heads the Environmental Engineering Program at Tel Aviv University, said the environmental impacts of all options for destroying the tunnels had to be considered, and their effects on the air, water, soil, hydrology and ecology tested in advance. Blowing up weaponry in the tunnels could also have environmental consequences, she added, if dangerous toxic materials and heavy metals seeped into the groundwater. “You don’t look at what’s best but what’s the least worst solution,” she said. Both the IDF and the Defense Ministry said they had no comment.

According to WSJ reporting, the Biden administration has been aware of Israel’s plan for at least a month, but the plan at the time had not been implemented.

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden declined to directly answer a question on reports that Israel was pumping seawater into Hamas' Gaza tunnel complex, referring only to assertions that there were no hostages in the areas targeted. Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had recently begun pumping seawater into Hamas' vast labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gaza, in a process that would likely take weeks.

There was no comment from the administration on the permanent environmental impact of this action.

x The flooding process began after the IDF added two pumps to five pumps which had been installed for the purpose of flooding the tunnels last month.#Israel | #Gaza https://t.co/mW7GAsGmTo — The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) December 12, 2023

Meanwhile, heavy rainfall is currently flooding Gaza and the refugee camps, exacerbating toxins from sewage and decomposing corpses that are killing people with intestinal and other infectious diseases.

x In central Palestine it has been raining on and off all day and the temperature has dropped significantly. It appears that conditions are similar in Gaza, with flooding in displaced camps creating dangerous conditions. Israel has made 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza houseless. pic.twitter.com/rrptpU70L0 — Good Shepherd Collective (@Shepherds4Good) December 13, 2023

x Painful| Amidst the flooding in Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza, a Palestinian boy bears the burden of carrying a lifeless child's body through the submerged streets. #GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/YdqktlgjAr — PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) December 13, 2023

What is the source of this flooding? It is not the result of rainfall, according to the poster.

x Apparent flooding at Gaza's Al-Rantisi Children's Hospital visible in Dec 10 @planet satellite imagery.



Not clear what caused the flooding, but it was not visible in Dec 06 imagery and doesn't appear to be anywhere else in the vicinity.



IDF took control of the building mid-Nov. pic.twitter.com/LpwLoSNEiC — Jake Godin (@JakeGodin) December 11, 2023

What a fucking mess.

From TexMex in the comments:

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