The Israeli military said Tuesday it has been pumping “large amounts of water” into the Hamas tunnels under Gaza “with the aim of neutralizing underground terrorist infrastructure.”
The idea of flooding the tunnels has been considered for at least two months, but it raised concerns such a strategy may jeopardize the approximately 130 hostages still held in Gaza and damage the territory’s drinking water supply and sewage system.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a posting the water is only pumped into suitable spots after considering “the soil and water systems in the area, matching the method of operation to each specific case.” The posting called the approach a “significant tool” in the fight against Hamas.
The militant group is believed to have built more than 350 miles of tunnels where its militants can hide and store weapons and ammunition. A recent Wall Street Journal report said about 80% of the tunnels remained intact despite the Israeli efforts to destroy them during a war that began Oct. 7.
‘It takes your heart and your soul’:3 US soldiers killed in Jordan identified
Developments:
∎ President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he has made a decision on how to respond to the attack by Iran-backed militants at a base in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops and wounded dozens more. He revealed no specifics. Biden said he considered Iran “responsible in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it.”
∎ Spc. Kennedy Sanders and Spc. Breonna Moffett, two of the three soldiers killed Sunday in a drone strike in Jordan, have been promoted posthumously to the rank of sergeant, the Army Reserve announced Tuesday. Sanders, 24, Moffett, 23, and Sgt. William Rivers, 46, died when the one-way drone slammed into their living quarters and detonated. All three hailed from Georgia.
∎ Canada, one of several nations including the U.S. to suspend funding to the embattled U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said it will provide $40 million to the World Food Program, UNICEF and other agencies to aid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
∎ Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said he was studying the latest proposal aimed at pausing the fighting and freeing more hostages “in order to achieve the interests of our people.” He said he was considering an invitation to visit Cairo to discuss the framework agreement.
∎ The Islamic cemetery and mosque in southern Gaza were destroyed by Israeli forces that said they found part of a Hamas tunnel network underneath, the Associated Press reported from the site. A skull with no teeth was found atop a pile of rubble, AP said.
Deadly drone attack:Mix-up at Jordan base may have led to strike that killed 3 troops
Undercover Israeli team kills 3 in West Bank hospital; Hamas vows ‘response’
An undercover Israeli military team infiltrated a hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin and killed three militants Tuesday in an attack Hamas leaders described as an execution and war crime that “will not pass without a response.”
Muhammad Jalamana, 27, had been using Ibn Sina Hospital as a hideout while planning a major attack “in the immediate time frame,” the Israeli military said in a statement. Also killed were brothers Muhammad and Bassel Azawi, who the military said also had been involved in terrorist activities.
The Palestinian Health Ministry released video showing gunmen dressed in scrubs and other civilian garb sweeping through the hospital, guns drawn. The Israeli statement reiterated the claim that large numbers of militants use hospitals and other civilian space “as a shelter and human shield.” Hamas again rejected the claim.
“The resistance that promised our people to jihad until the occupation was defeated … will not be intimidated by the assassinations or the cowardly enemy crimes,” Hamas leaders said in a statement
Iran condemned the shootings, saying such attacks pave the way for normalizing “organized terrorism” in the world. “It is expected that the countries of the world will not be indifferent to Israel’s act of terrorism,” Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said.
UK could recognize Palestinian state before war ends, ex-British leader says
Britain might be willing to provide formal diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state prior to a final peace deal involving Israel, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Tuesday.
Recognition would give Palestinians a “political horizon,” Cameron said, and reflect irreversible progress to a two-state solution and establishment of a Palestinian state − a plan that has been repeatedly rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Cameron said Israel’s resistance to a two-state solution has fueled 30 years of failed security policy, the BBC reports.
One of Netanyahu’s complaints has been U.S. and British support for the state’s leadership to fall to the Palestinian Authority, which in the past has called for the destruction of Israel. Cameron said a revamped authority with strong leadership would be a prerequisite for recognition.
“We should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, what it would comprise, how it would work,” the former British prime minister said. “That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible.”
Netanyahu refuses to pull troops out of Gaza as part of any peace plan
Israel will not pull its troops out of Gaza and won’t release thousands of Palestinians from Israeli jails as part of any deal for the return of more than 100 hostages, Netanyahu said Tuesday. Both actions have been crucial to talks surrounding an extended cease-fire the U.S. and other nations have been laboring to broker for weeks. Netanyahu, speaking at a pre-military academy in the occupied West Bank, said he remains committed to “total victory” over Hamas.
“I am committed to it, our fighters are committed to it, and the absolute majority of the (Israeli) people are committed to it,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli and global media have reported on a “framework” for a cease-fire deal that could free 100 or more Palestinians currently detained in Israeli jails for each hostage released by militants in Gaza. And a two-state solution has been viewed globally as a long-term answer to douse the tinderbox that is the Middle East.
“We will not end this war with less than the achievement of all its goals,” Netanyahu said. “We will not remove the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists. None of this will happen. What will happen? Absolute victory.”
Militant groups activated by war threaten broader conflict
The growing number of attacks from several Iran-backed militias in the Middle East has heightened concerns about the Israel-Hamas war spreading beyond Gaza. Most recently, one of those hostile acts killed three U.S. service members over the weekend in Jordan.
The war Hamas started with its vicious assault on Israeli border communities Oct. 7 has activated the militant groups, leading to repeated exchanges of fire between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel, its neighbor to the south. In addition, Houthi rebels in Yemen have disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea with dozens of attempted strikes, purportedly in support of embattled Palestinians.
The Pentagon says other militias supported by Iran have launched more than 160 attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria since mid-October. One of those groups, Kataib Hezbollah − also known as the Hezbollah Brigades − said in a statement Tuesday it was suspending military operations against U.S. troops in the region “in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government.”
Here’s a look at these combative groups.
After shootings, Palestinian health minister urges UN to protect hospitals
Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Alkaila called on the U.N. General Assembly, international institutions and human rights organizations to help bring an end to crimes she said are committed by Israelis against Palestinian people and health centers in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Alkaila said international support is desperately needed to protect treatment centers and ambulance crews.
Alkaila said the assault in Ibn Sina Hospital is just the lastest of dozens of crimes committed by the occupation forces against hospitals, patients and medical staff. She cited international law that provides protections for civilian sites, including hospitals.
Defense minister says Israel won’t cede military control of Gaza after war
Israel will maintain military control of postwar Gaza similar to the security control Israel exercises in the West Bank, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday. Gallant said the attack in the Jenin hospital was an example of the control and access Israel would retain after the war.
“I think it’s completely clear that Hamas won’t control Gaza,” Gallant said at a briefing in Tel Aviv. “Israel will control militarily but won’t control it in a civilian sense.”
Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
