Abstract
When that happens, Israeli troops will begin a dangerous new phase of the military campaign against Hamas fighters in a densely populated urban terrain that includes closely packed buildings above ground and a troubling maze of tunnels below. [...]Israel’s campaign against Hamas seems to have been primarily carried out from the air, including via laser-guided bunker-buster bombs, which are armed with deep-penetrating warheads and delayed fuses to enable them to blow up underground. During that campaign, Israeli troops were surprised by the requirements of tunnel warfare, according to an analysis by the Rand Corporation think tank. Since that experience, Israel has created a special tunnel-warfare unit, known as Samur, which translates as “weasels” in Hebrew, that is trained specifically to fight underground. According to an Oct. 20, 2023, Congressional Research Service report, it is likely that some of these facilities and technologies were paid for by American taxpayers, as part of US$320 million in U.S. military funding meant for U.S.-Israel collaboration on “detecting, mapping, and neutralizing underground tunnels that threaten either country.”