Aviva Fried, edited by Yanis Darras // Photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / ANADOLU AGENCY / Anadolu via AFP
Preparation for Israel’s ground counteroffensive continues. While the army is only waiting for the green light from politicians, a challenge will particularly await the soldiers, if authorization to enter the Gaza Strip is given: the kilometers of tunnel under the enclave.
Hamas has dug numerous galleries all over urban areas, which allow them to hide, but also sometimes to hide equipment. A strategy reminiscent of that of the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. At the time, the American army had created a specialized division in 1967, called “the tunnel rats”.
“We were moving forward inch by inch”
“We were on all fours, we just had a flashlight, a pistol and a bayonet,” recalls Jack Flowers, 78. The American, a veteran of the Vietnam War, was integrated into the infantry corps of engineers. Objective of the operation: enter the tunnels, collect all the information hidden inside, evacuate or kill the enemy there and detonate them to demolish them.
“We advanced inch by inch in the tunnel. At each turn, we fired three shots. The enemy knew we were coming, and he retreated. (…) There were traps everywhere. They used snakes and “Scorpion spiders. The Vietnamese found what they called bamboo vipers. They tied them to bamboo sticks and hung them from the ceiling of the tunnel. If anyone passed by, the snake would bite,” the lieutenant explains.
Go down into the tunnels, the only way to destroy them
For the former soldier, “the war technique” used in Gaza is the same as in Vietnam. “In Vietnam, we (the Americans, editor’s note) controlled the air, and we could only see an entrance or an exit from a tunnel, at most. It’s the same thing in Gaza. The Israeli army may have be an idea of where the tunnels are, but they are very difficult to destroy,” he explains.
“It almost takes a B52 bomber and 200 kilo bombs, which must fall exactly where the tunnels are, to eliminate them,” estimates Jack Flowers. “And you’ll just have a big crater, with a lot of collateral damage. The only way to neutralize a tunnel is to go into it. You have to go down there, go in. And you can’t send many soldiers, if there is fighting inside, it is one on one,” he concludes.