The tunnel network was originally estimated to include 400 km of underground passages and bunkers. Israel Defense Forces has since revised these estimates to 560-725 km or more.
Two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were close to 5,700 separate shafts leading into the tunnels under Gaza. None of the numbers could be independently verified, however.
It could take years to disable the tunnels, one Israeli official told the Times. They need to be mapped, checked for Israeli captives, and “made irreparable,” he said, acknowledging that the recent attempts to destroy the tunnels by flooding them with seawater “have failed.”
According to another official, Israel is using a “triangle” model to locate the tunnels, which assumes they will be found under any hospital, school or mosque in Gaza.
The Israeli military has underestimated the “extent and importance” of the tunnels to Hamas, which the Times described as an “intelligence failure.”
One soldier, who spoke with the Times on condition of anonymity, said that he took had taken part in destroying about 50 tunnels in Beit Hanoun, in the northeast of Gaza. All of them were rigged with bombs and other explosives, wired to be activated remotely.
Source: Kanal 13
