Last week I traveled to the south of Israel to report on the rocket attacks by Hamas and discovered tools of war not in the sky but underground. The Israeli media calls them variously attack tunnels or offensive tunnels. They are not new to warfare and are properly analyzed as expedient field fortifications. One hundred years ago on the Western Front they were called trenches. In the Negev Desert in 2014, the tunnels have given Hamas militants a significant advantage, because they are genuinely terrifying. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that military operations would continue until all such “tunnels of terror” were destroyed. The current Israel Defense Forces (IDF) combat operations against Hamas are chiefly driven by the discovery of a surprising cross-border tunnel that enabled a Hamas attack on July 17. Thirteen armed men were spotted emerging from a tunnel several hundred yards inside Israel, near Kibbutz Shiva, a farming community. The IDF struck with high explosives, and the attackers fled. Analysis showed that the attackers were aiming for the more than 100 farmers asleep and unaware — perhaps for abduction, perhaps for murder. Since the Shiva incident, the IDF has concentrated on discovering and destroying as many attack tunnels as possible. More than 30 have been eliminated so far. The tunnel entrances in Gaza are always concealed inside buildings. The IDF detonates the entrances and exits and seeks to destroy the whole tunnel by drilling from the surface and inserting high explosives. It is slow, perilous, inexact work, and much of the ground fighting between the off-and-on cease-fires is devoted to tunnel destruction.

Tunnels of terror

On July 23, I visited a farming community in the Eshkol region, south of Gaza, which is close to where the IDF thwarted the tunnel attack six days before and has seen four dead and several more wounded from mortars in the past 24 hours. There I sat with a widow, Anna (not her real name, to protect her identity in an active combat zone), to learn what it is like to be the target of a terrorist attack. Anna told me that all the children of the kibbutz were sent away weeks ago and that about 100 adults have stayed to maintain the community. The kibbutz houses are so close to the Gaza line — less than a mile — that the Israel’s Iron Dome interceptor system of anti-missile batteries does not protect them. On the Red Alert app that Israelis use for rocket attacks, users often see “Eshkol region.” When the siren sounds, Anna has about 15 seconds to enter a secure room built to withstand a direct hit by a Qassam rocket, which is usually loaded with ball bearings or other metal pieces for shrapnel.

The attack tunnels represent a far darker twist than rockets in the conflict that wears down Israelis’ collective sense of well-being and security.

Although the rockets are frightening, the attack tunnels present Anna with a whole new threat. The authorities do not want her to lock the door of her secure room because they could not reach her if she became unconscious. This means that a Hamas raid would leave her defenseless in the secure room, a target for murder or abduction. “My front door,” she said, “she can kick it in,” pointing to her 13-year-old deeply loyal terrier. Anna said that some weeks ago, the farmers believed they heard sounds underground and complained to the authorities. Searchers could find no indication of tunnels, but no one was reassured. The attack tunnels discovered elsewhere so far make the southern reaches of Gaza like an anthill. The excavations are 40 to 90 feet deep, tall and wide enough for a man with a weapon to pass up to a mile underground. The IDF reports finding weapons, high explosives and other ordnance in niches along the tunnel walls. The IDF also discovered Hamas militants carrying zip ties and narcotics to help in abductions. It may be that the rocket barrage that started in mid-July brought the IDF to the region prematurely for Hamas’ purposes. Israeli security sources assert that Hamas was still preparing what is called the Rosh Hashanah terrorist tunnel plot, which would send 200 militants into Israel not only to murder civilians but also perhaps to capture parts of Israel and hold off the IDF with hostages.

Hamas victories