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WORLD
Hamas’s network of tunnels in Gaza was part of their preparation for the October 7 attack on Israel.
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In the years before the October 7, 2023, attack, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar urged the group to become more self-sufficient, according to unnamed Hamas officials who spoke to The Washington Post in an article published on Saturday (October 5).
Hamas’s network of tunnels in Gaza was part of their preparation for the October 7 attack on Israel. According to people who attended a meeting with Yahya Sinwar, Hamas had discussed this attack six months in advance. These participants revealed the details to The Jerusalem Post (JP), marking the first time such information was confirmed.
According to the media report, Hamas’s tunnel system cost hundreds of millions of dollars and reportedly stretched 300 miles (around 480 kilometres), which is longer than the New York City subway and roughly the distance from Tel-Aviv to southern Turkey. According to one of the participants, during the meeting, Sinwar had said there would be a surprise.
In preparation of the ‘resistance phase’—the period of continued fighting and defence after an initial attack—after the October 7 attack, Hamas leaders focused on making sure the group could produce its own weapons, ensuring they had the resources to continue their operations. This preparation helped the group’s leaders survive a year-long fight with Israel, according to reports. Their foresight allowed them to keep fighting throughout the conflict.
Manufacturing units were successfully built below the ground, Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza, told the Post. He explained that they did this because they anticipated that, one day, all supply routes would be cut off. In addition to producing and storing weapons, the underground tunnels also functioned as communication systems, supply storage, transportation routes, logistics hubs, bomb shelters and field hospitals, officials told the Post. The tunnels also became traps for soldiers and were used to hold some of the hostages taken on October 7.
IDF investigators found only a few weapons made in Iran. Instead, they discovered small workshops where scavenged pipes and agricultural chemicals were being turned into weapon parts. Both US and Israeli officials expressed surprise at the scale of Hamas’s new tunnel system, which has been nicknamed Gaza’s ‘metro’.
IDF officials told the Post that they originally thought the Hamas bunker was about 30 feet (around 9 metres) deep. However, further searches revealed tunnels going as deep as 120 feet (about 37 metres), showing the scale of work Israeli forces would face in finding and destroying Hamas’s extensive tunnel network.
According to a former US counter-terrorism official who toured Hamas-built tunnels as a guest of the IDF, “their eyes opened wide with shock”. The official further said they did not understand how vast the tunnel system was. It covered 150 kilometres (about 93 miles). But, in reality, it was even larger than they had expected. Hamad said they had worked round the clock in Gaza and spent many years preparing for the final showdown and not just one or two years.
According to JP, Dana Stroul, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East during the first three years of the Biden Administration, nobody realized how vast the tunnels were or that there were so many different kinds.
Hamas’s Earlier Tactics
In past conflicts, Hamas had smuggled weapons into Egypt through tunnels, often reopening tunnels sealed by the IDF forces using drills. Unlike earlier conflicts, intelligence analysts told the Post that, before the October 7 attack, weapons were brought into Gaza over ground, passing through border crossings monitored by both Egypt and Israel.
Although Hamas aimed to be self-sufficient by producing its own weapons, it still received support from external sources. Anonymous officials told the Post that Hamas had gathered tens of millions of dollars, with only a portion of that money coming from Iran. Officials, speaking anonymously, admitted that Hamas had also diverted aid money, charitable donations, tax revenues and even stolen deposits from Gazan banks to fund their activities.
IDF officials told The Washington Post that Tehran also helped the group by arranging their travel to Iran, where they were trained. Hamas members also travelled from Gaza to Lebanon, where Iran is believed to have set up a command centre to share military strategies and technical knowledge. Hamad revealed that, besides funds and training, some weapon parts were being brought into Gaza from outside sources. He explained that such items as machine tools and agricultural chemicals used to make explosives were either disguised as civilian goods or hidden in shipments of food and other everyday products.
Hamad added that they were in a situation where they were forced to do whatever they could and gather everything they needed. They were fighting against a powerful country with advanced technology and weapons. Fighting Israel was not easy and they fully understood the challenges, he added.
Hamas's Weapons Stockpile
IDF officials estimated that around 80% of Hamas’s weapons were now made in Gaza, although the Post noted that they, possibly, drew inspiration from other terrorist groups in the region. Hamas mainly uses short- and medium-range rockets, such as the M-75, which can reportedly reach Tel-Aviv. The M-75 is modelled after Iran’s Fajr-5 rocket.
Hamas more often uses the Qassam, a rocket the group had developed over 20 years ago. The Qassam is built from steel water pipes and packed with explosives made from sugar and potassium nitrate fertilizer. Although only a few Qassam rockets actually reach Israel, each one costs just a few hundred dollars to make. In contrast, Israel’s Iron Dome system costs $50,000 to intercept and destroy each rocket.
Hamas’s Plans for Revival
According to regional intelligence officials quoted by the Post, the year-long war with Israel has resulted in the elimination of 15,000 Hamas fighters. Many of their roughly 5,700 tunnels are now destroyed. Despite the current situation of Hamas, there are already plans in place to rebuild the group. This is happening even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aims to completely eliminate Hamas.
Hamad mentioned that Sinwar had put a lot of thought into making sure the group could recover after Israel’s strong response to the October 7 attack, which Sinwar had anticipated would be significant. Funds, possibly, have been redirected to support Hamas’s revival, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and crypto currencies. Hamad stated that, even with Israel’s efforts, the group still had “channels” to receive funds.
Despite the significant amount of funds available to the group, many of the 50,000 civil workers in Gaza have received only half their salaries and some have reported that they have not been paid at all. The war has caused many Palestinians in Gaza to lose their homes and some have had family members killed in strikes on Hamas, which operates in residential areas. Arab analysts believe these losses may help Hamas recruit further cadres.
A senior Arab intelligence official said there was no lack of young volunteers willing to join. While they may not be as well-trained, these young volunteers will help Hamas replace its losses. These are people who have lost their families, and they have one goal: revenge. To take advantage of this situation, the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, has started promoting insurgency on social media.
Cautions to Consider
Sinwar had reportedly boasted—both in public speeches and private conversations—about the forthcoming battle and the large-scale efforts carried out by the terror group. At a rally of his supporters in Gaza on December 14, 2022, Sinwar had warned that they would come to them with an unending barrage of rockets and a countless number of soldiers. Sinwar aimed to disrupt the situation in Israel and made sure funds and resources were available for many years, Abu Hamza, a 33-year-old Hamas commander in Jenin, West Bank, told the Post.
(The author of this article is a Defence, Aerospace & Political Analyst based in Bengaluru. He is also Director of ADD Engineering Components, India, Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany. You can reach him at: girishlinganna@gmail.com)