Tunneled

The only thing worse than having to assault an entrenched enemy force is to assault one hiding out in tunnels.

During the First World War, the Allied and Axis armies dug trenches and spent years vainly trying to overrun each other. They were still in their respective trenches when a truce was finally declared.

The Japanese Imperial Army dug tunnels in small Pacific islands to resist Allied forces. The portable flamethrower had to be invented to deal with that problem. Nevertheless, a number of Japanese stragglers continued their resistance years after the war ended.

During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong dug tunnels to protect their troops from intensive American bombardment. The US took intolerable casualties trying to root Vietnamese guerrillas out of their hiding places. The Americans lost that war.

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) has moved its troops about three kilometers into Gaza. An incursion is inevitable. It is the only way to fully dismantle Hamas. But they are moving with extreme caution, avoiding mistakes in the past that resulted in ugly casualties.

Over the past decade or so, Hamas militants have built a network of tunnels stretching hundreds of kilometers underneath the congested Gaza Strip. Those tunnels are now referred to as the “Gaza Metro.” This is where the militants hide their fighting units, their rockets and now their hostages.

If the IDF rolls its armored forces willy-nilly into Gaza’s crowded streets, they will be ambushed by determined militants moving through the tunnels. Some of the tunnels are dug so deeply, they are immune to bunker-busting bombs. The militants underground (literally) can inflict heavy casualties on the IDF.

The IDF closely studied the tactics used by US forces in nearby Iraq. Those tactics basically involve taking small pieces of territory and patiently clearing them out before moving to the next village. It is a long and painstaking way to fight a war, notwithstanding the overwhelming superiority in arms and armor enjoyed by US forces.

The same painstaking methods will have to be used in Gaza. Hamas calculated that an enraged Israel would roll its armor into Gaza in a full-scale assault. There the Israelis would be ambushed by militant fighters from their tunnels.

The IDF has taken expert advice not to invade in anger. It would have produced a disaster for the Israelis. The on-going assault on Gaza, using quick raids and smaller units, is based on reliable intelligence and tightly targeted smart bombs. There will be no dramatic sweep across Gaza. Only the uninitiated will attempt such folly.

As a consequence, the effort to dismantle Hamas will likely take weeks or even months. Hamas will not give up and the Israelis will not relent.

No army in the world has demonstrated as much patience, prudence and precision as the IDF. When Israeli athletes were massacred by Palestinian terrorists during the Munich Olympics, the IDF hunted down and killed each one of those terrorists up to two decades after the event.

When Hamas launched that deliberately murderous attack on Israeli border settlements on Oct. 7, killing about 1,400 people, they hoped to rally Arab support for their goal of destroying the State of Israel. But that brutal assault removed whatever moral ascendancy the terrorists might have enjoyed.

The Philippines abstained from the last UN General Assembly resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza because the document contained no condemnation of the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis. However brutal the Israeli bombardment of Gaza might be, it must be taken in the context of the Oct. 7 assault.

Israel will never be at peace for as long as a group like Hamas remains in control of people and territory on her borders. Hamas, their allies in the Hezbollah and their common patron Iran, are dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel. While they have the capacity to inflict terror, the two-state formula for Palestine will not take root.

Israel will not stop anywhere short of its goal of the total destruction of Hamas. For them, this is what Oct. 7 teaches.

But what happens to Gaza after the IDF clears out the last Hamas militant?

When Hamas grabbed power and booted out the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from the strip, no other political faction was allowed to prosper in the area. Hamas controlled all the institutions of governance. There is no such thing as an anti-Hamas opposition in Gaza even as the majority of the population despises the militant rulers.

Over two weeks of nearly constant bombardment reduced Gaza to a pile of twisted iron and broken concrete. There was not much of an economy in Gaza to begin with. There will hardly be any economy after the IDF.

The Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, cannot take over Gaza. Apart from having no resources at all to do so, its leader is hated by the Gazans.

Nor will the better endowed Hezbollah assume control of Gaza. Israel will never allow that. Members of the Lebanon-based militant group are virtually foreigners.

Perhaps a UN-mandated peacekeeping force can be sent to Gaza. But so far, there appears no enthusiasm for that possibility. Qatar and Turkey, the two countries most vocal about the plight of the people of Gaza, have not indicated any interest in governing the territory post-Hamas.

A humanitarian calamity is unfolding in Gaza. It cannot be averted simply by sending trucks with relief goods in. Some other entity must offer to govern this mess.