![\"'Sponge](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-10\/i6t7bpq4_hamas-tunnel-city-reuters_625x300_27_October_23.jpg\"\/ "\\"'Sponge")
<\/div>\nHamas reportedly has different kinds of tunnels<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
New Delhi: <\/b><\/p>\n
Fighting in Gaza has entered day 21 after the Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise cross-border attack on Israel, killing about 1,400 people. Since the October 7 attack, Israel has been bombarding Gaza, in which more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military has also mounted an incursion deeper into Gaza on Friday as it readies for a ground offensive against Hamas. However, one of the biggest challenges the Israeli troops face is an extensive Hamas tunnel network<\/a>, where the group is said to have taken several hostages.<\/p>\n Hamas reportedly has different kinds of tunnels — hundreds of kilometres long and up to 80 metres deep — running beneath the sandy 360-sq-km coastal strip and its borders.<\/p>\n In order to fight Hamas through its tunnel network, Israel is reportedly making “sponge bombs”, which create a sudden explosion of foam that rapidly expands and then hardens.<\/p>\n According to a report in The Telegraph<\/em>, Israel has been testing the chemical grenades, which contain no explosives but are used to seal off gaps or tunnel entrances from which Hamas operatives may emerge.\u00a0<\/p>\n These devices are said to be encased within a protective plastic container that has a metal barrier that divides two distinct liquids. When activated, these liquids merge and advance toward their intended destination.<\/p>\n The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were seen deploying these devices during exercises in a mock tunnel system near the Gaza border in 2021.<\/p>\n Among the elite units tasked with going underground is Yahalom, specialist commandos from Israel’s Combat Engineering Corps known as the “weasels”, who specialise in finding, clearing, and destroying the tunnels.<\/p>\n Hamas was created in Gaza in 1987 and reportedly started digging tunnels in the mid-1990s<\/a>.<\/p>\n The tunnel network is a key reason why Hamas is stronger in Gaza than in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n Tunneling became easier in 2005 when Israel pulled its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza, and when Hamas won power in a 2006 election.<\/p>\nSponge bombs\u00a0create sudden explosion of foam <\/strong><\/h2>\n
How Hamas built its tunnel network<\/strong><\/h2>\n