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A labyrinth-like tunnel that the Israeli military says is the biggest Hamas tunnel in Gaza
2024-01-11 (266)
CNN’s Will Ripley reports on a labyrinth-like tunnel that the Israeli military says is the biggest Hamas tunnel in Gaza.
Video Transcription:
Joining us now, the republican
governor of New Hampshire, Kristenunu.
And we do have something I want to share with you
tonight on that a new image of a tunnel tonight.
So you're looking at this here and
you can see how wide it is.
These images come from both the IDF and also
Reuters journalists who were there to witness it.
The tunnel spans two and a half miles.
It reaches more than 160ft underground,
and it is equipped with electricity,
ventilation and communication systems.
It goes incredibly close to the israeli border and
can be used for large forces to move. Right.
You can see this isn't a narrow thing at all.
Its discovery comes as this war
is spreading beyond Israel's borders.
Another iranian funded militia, the Houthis, today
claiming responsibility for an attack on a
ship in the Red Sea.
The USS Carney, quickly responding
to the ship's distress call.
But over the past two months, houthi forces have been
involved in a number of attacks along the Red Sea.
Actual hijacking, drones, missile
attacks on commercial ships.
And all this is adding up now to a
lot of ships rerouting, taking longer to get where
they're going to go, skipping the Suez Canal.
These attacks are taking a toll on the whole
world because 90% of the world's commerce moves by
ship, 10% through the Suez Canal every day, never
mind things like oil and liquefied natural gas going
through that passageway every second.
Today, oil and natural gas prices spiking after
british petroleum said it would stop all shipments
through the Red Sea because of these strikes.
And we're going to have much more
on these attacks in just a moment.
I want to begin, though, with Will Ripley, because
he is out front, live in Tel Aviv.
And, will, today you were in southern
Israel, just a few miles from Gaza.
And what did you know, Aaron, we were working
most of the day within a stone's throw of
the fence that divides Israel and Gaza.
And you did not need a map to know when we
were getting close to Gaza because there was a massive smoke
plume that was rising up from that embattled area.
And in fact, every few minutes as we
were driving and then even louder on the
ground, we heard very loud booms.
This was the sound of outgoing israeli artillery landing,
theoretically presumably, on the people of Gaza, which makes
you wonder what the conditions must be like for
them there, both above and even below ground, beneath
the bombed out rubble of Gaza.
A massive underground labyrinth.
Newly released videos from the israeli military claim
to show the biggest Hamas tunnel in Gaza,
two and a half miles long, up to
164ft deep, with electricity, ventilation and communication systems.
The IDF says the tunnel is wide enough
for a large vehicle, even a makeshift railroad.
CNN cannot independently verify these videos, claiming
to show what the IDF calls Hamas's
strategic infrastructure, hundreds of terror tunnel shafts
throughout the Gaza Strip.
The IDF on a mission to locate
and destroy dozens of attack tunnel routes.
Hamas made the unverified claim of building
more than 300 miles of tunnels under
Gaza, tunnels for smuggling goods, launching attacks,
storing rockets and ammunition.
And Israel says Hamas command centers hidden beneath homes
under this child's caught, not the baby's caught.
You see a tunnel that was used for terror by Hama for
three israeli men held hostage in Gaza, a sign of desperation to
the end, a white sheet and a plea for help.
Scrawled in Hebrew with leftover food, it reads, help.
Three hostages.
A message either missed or ignored by israeli
soldiers who shot them down from a distance,
all three shirtless, waving a white cloth.
The men holed up in a building in
the embattled Shijaya neighborhood of Gaza city.
It's not clear if the hostages were abandoned
or managed to escape before the fatal confrontation.
The IDF admits the killings broke their rules of
engagement, adding pressure on israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to secure the release of around 129 remaining hostages
amid growing international calls for a ceasefire, a truce
Israel says would only strengthen Hamas.
As everyday people suffer.
On the streets of Gaza, social media images
show crowds climbing on aid trucks, a sign
of growing desperation amid a mounting humanitarian crisis
as the number of dead in Gaza approaches
a staggering new milestone of 20,000.
That number just gives you chills.
And yet that is the reality in Gaza right now.
And also the reality.
These new serious questions, Aaron, about how
the IDF is operating on the ground.
The fact that these three israeli hostages
came out shirtless, waving a white cloth.
Two of them were shot instantly, but yet the third,
who went back, sought shelter, then came out again waving
a white cloth and was shot and killed before the
forces realized that he was, in fact, israeli.
You wonder what is happening to the countless civilians who
are dying in Gaza, some of them face to face
with the israeli forces that are on the ground there.
Aaron yes, we do. All right.
Thank you very much, will ripley in Tel Aviv.
Out front now, Daphne Richmond.
Barack she's an expert on Hamas tunnels
and the author of Underground Warfare, also
an assistant professor at Israel's Reichman University.
And I really appreciate your
taking the time, professor.
So when you look at the passageways of
the tunnels now, we're looking at them much
wider than the tunnels we've seen before.
You can see a lot of people walking
through together, as opposed to that very narrow
pathway of the other images that we've seen.
Even wide enough for vehicles, the
IDF says even wide enough for
a railroad, electricity, ventilation, communication.
All of mean.
You spent a decade of your life
studying tunnels like this, this entire system.
What do you see here?
I see a tunnel that looks a whole lot like
the tunnels that North Korea has dug into South Korea.
This is what I see.
I see something of a much higher
level of sophistication, which you described.
Much wider, more resistant, stronger, dug not
just by hand, but actually with the
use of some sophisticated civilian boring equipment.
So we're talking about tunnel
warfare on a different level.
And I see also, in addition to the influence
of North Korea, kind of like the large tunnel
enabling a massive invasion and infiltration into the country.
I also see the hand of Iran here, which
is a country that has deeply buried facilities.
So it is very different from what Hamas
has done with its underground tunnel network.
But you can see that with Iran's help,
Hamas has been able to dig deeper.
And, you know, you talk about the equipment,
heavy, boring equipment that would have been used.
I know the IDF has shown what they say
are some images of construction on this tunnel.
This tunnel, though, where it's located, we understand,
according to the IDF, it ends just about
a thousand feet from the israeli border.
A specific crossing, actually, the Erez crossing
on the northern israeli Gaza border.
So when you take into account what the tunnel
is, when you talk about possibly being used for
a large scale invasion, and where you see it,
then, what does that layer of context tell you?
So a couple of things.
I think you put it very well.
It raises a lot of questions.
The first thing that I can tell you is,
I'm pretty sure that this is not the only
tunnel of the like that Hamas has.
Not all Hamas tunnels look like this one, but I
presume that it has a few, a dozen, I would
say, of such kind of like more heavy duty tunnels.
And now the next question that comes up is, okay, so
what did Hamas really intend to do with this tunnel?
Right.
It's obviously a very important military asset that was
well concealed and came very close to Israel's border.
So I see two options.
Number one, this is a tunnel that was actually used,
or some portion of it, or some variation on this
tunnel was used on October 7 itself to enable this
massive infiltration of over 3000 Hamas fighters.
I mean, these are some of the numbers.
We don't know the exact number.
We know it's a very high number.
And then for them to go on foot into
Israel, I would find it very surprising that it
didn't use any kind of cross border tunnel.
So maybe this was one of those.
But I think another order of questioning would come to
say, okay, this wasn't used then what was Hamas's plan?
Was it to use this tunnel and make it operational?
Because it's obviously quasi operational right now and
make it usable during the war, during the
operation to carry out another massive infiltration, or
more kidnappings and more killings.
Meaning it's either one of these two options
because of exactly what you said, the fact
that it's coming so close to Israel's border.
I see these two scenarios, and I presume that Israel
will uncover in the coming days more such tunnels.
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