Posted on 10/25/23
| News Source: JPost
The invasion and massacre in Israel on October 7 brutally showed how Hamas has significantly improved and strengthened its tactical and strategic terror capabilities since it began to dig into and hide in the Gaza Strip decades ago.
The infamous Hamas tunnels have played a central role in this worrisome development. Prof. Joel Roskin, a geomorphologist and geologist at Bar-Ilan University's geography and environment department, has followed the changes in the Gaza tunnels over the years, analyzed the conditions that allowed their formation and expansion and revealed what geological and security conditions have enabled their speedy development.
Three years ago, Roskin published a book chapter based on his study “Underground Warfare in the Gaza Strip and the Military Complexity of Combating It.” A timely article on the same topic and with the same name is currently in the final stages of acceptance by the academic journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.
The article, based on his experience as head of the terrain research department in the Southern Command in the 2000s and on information publicized in the media, describes the field data and the geopolitical conditions that literally provided the fertile ground for the development of the tunnels.
Clear records of tunneling operations extend back more than 4,000 years – Assyrian carvings show engineering units belonging to Sargon of Akkad (who reigned between 2,334 and 2,279 BCE) undermining the walls of enemy cities. American troops attacking Al Qaeda positions and pursuing Osama bin Laden in 2002 discovered a massive tunnel complex connecting the natural Tora Bora cave formations in Afghanistan.
The tunnels in Gaza initially had some basic characteristics in common with other excavation sites in Israel and elsewhere in the world, such as burial caves, mines, and hiding systems. “But each tunnel system is different and uniquely related to the geological, geographic and geopolitical conditions in place,” he explained.
"What is interesting about Hamas is that the rate of growth of the tunnels, not only in size but also in purpose, complemented the development of the organization’s operational concept," Roskin said. "It began with the smuggling of goods, progressed to the smuggling of weapons, and later evolved into attack tunnels."