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The Treacherous Task of Tunnel Demolition

(Times of Israel) Mitch Ginsburg - Israel has sent in troops to find and destroy the underground tunnels in Gaza that stretch all along the border. Brig. Gen. (res) Shimi Daniel, a former commander of the combat engineering corps, told Channel 2 news on Thursday that the entrance shafts of the tunnels are located within civilian homes and that, by the time troops arrive, "they've already poured fresh concrete over the opening." Once detected, soldiers specializing in counter-tunnel operations lower a robot into the shaft which sends back video and has the capacity to map the contours of the tunnel. Afterward, the army will send explosive-detecting dogs into the tunnel. Some of the recently discovered tunnels are more than 60-feet deep and over a mile long. Many branch out near the border with multiple exits. Once detected, the tunnels can be struck from above. Brig. Gen. (res) Asaf Agmon said the concrete-reinforced tunnels are readily penetrated by a standard one-ton bomb with a delayed fuse. However, a former commander of the combat engineering corps said that in order to completely dismantle a tunnel system, hundreds of pounds of explosives have to be inserted all along its length.
2014-07-20 00:00:00
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