Washington — The Israeli and U.S. governments have been cooperating for years to develop systems to detect Hamas tunnels, whether those used to bring goods across the border, infiltrate Israel for attacks, or hide and hide weapons.
Article 127 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2016 establishes a U.S.-Israeli cooperation program to combat tunnels.
A study by the Congress Research Service, a research body that provides research and documented data to members of Congress, seen by Al Jazeera Net, indicated that Washington has provided aid worth $ 320 million since 2016, at a rate of close to $ 40 million annually, as the following infographic shows:
The technology resulting from U.S.-Israeli cooperation uses sensors and acoustic or seismic software to detect potholes and tunnels, and relies on detection techniques used in the oil and natural gas sector.
The same authorization allowed funds from the U.S. Defense R&D, test, and evaluation account, as well as some Israeli funds, to be used to create anti-tunnel capabilities that "detect, map, and neutralize" underground tunnels that threaten the United States or Israel.
The authorization requires the secretary of defense to report to Congress on the sharing of research and development costs between the United States and Israel. Over the years, the IDF has become more adept at detecting tunnels.
In 2021, Israel completed an anti-tunnel wall along the 64-kilometer border between Israel and Gaza. The barrier is a concrete wall that continues underground and is equipped with sensors.
The Congressional Research Service study indicated the discovery of Israeli anti-tunnel technology for some Hamas tunnels at depths of up to 230 feet underground.
Challenging tunnels for land invasion
As Israel prepares to launch a large-scale ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, one of the challenges awaiting the invasion is the extensive underground tunnel system.
Hamas, for its part, said it had built 500 kilometres of tunnels under Gaza. Gaza's tunnels are reportedly wide, referred to by the Israeli military as the "metro".
In May, President Joe Biden's administration gave the green light for the sale of $735 million worth of precision-guided weapons to Israel. The IDF has a large stockpile of US-made GBU-28 munitions designed to penetrate fortified targets deep underground, although the bombs leave enormous craters and can inflict heavy civilian casualties.
Bradley Bowman, a military expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, said the tunnels allow some Hamas fighters to survive the bombing, move around Gaza under cover and hide, resupply its forces, hide hostages, and launch surprise attacks.
Bowman said most of the tunnels are reinforced with concrete and some are very deep, allowing them to protect Hamas operatives from airstrikes. In 2020, Israel found a single tunnel up to 230 feet below the surface, according to the Modern Warfare Institute at the West Point Military Academy.
The tunnels will be a key part of Hamas's "guerrilla strategy," according to John Spencer, head of urban warfare studies at the Modern Warfare Institute at West Point. "Hamas fighters will form small teams of fighters that move underground, pop up, strike, and quickly return to the tunnel," Spencer wrote.
The IDF has acknowledged the challenges posed by the tunnel system, despite the presence of several units specializing in tunnel control, and the IDF has claimed to have struck Hamas targets, including "a number of underground tunnels" since fighting erupted on Oct. 7.
Military experts expect that the ground battle will proceed if it breaks out over a complex tunnel network, and Hamas has the "advantage of fighting in its stadium," and it is also likely that it has prepared for a major Israeli ground incursion long before the start of the Al-Aqsa flood operation on the seventh of October, which makes any Israeli ground incursion difficult, and raises the cost of carrying it out.