IDF's
Gaza Wall May Change Hamas Terror Strategies
by Yaakov Lappin
Special to IPT News
September 15, 2017
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 Time may be running
out for one of Hamas's main weapons against Israel: Its cross-border terror
tunnels.
By 2019, according to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) assessments, Israel
will complete an underground wall that stretches along the 60-kilometer (37
mile) border with Gaza. The wall is the product of several years of
research and development, and is designed to eliminate the tunnel threat to
Israeli communities located near Gaza.
During the past three years, since the end of its last conflict with
Israel, Hamas has invested big resources into its tunnel maze. One of its
top goals is to rehabilitate an ability to inject murder squads into
Israeli territory through the tunnels.
Once inside Israel, they could target IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians
for murder or kidnapping, whenever the next conflict breaks out.
But Israel has invested far more than Hamas to try stopping that threat.
It is paying 150 million shekels ($42.5 million) for each kilometer of the
new wall.
Work began on the subterranean project in areas where Israeli
communities were very close to the border. Then, gradually, other areas
began receiving protection.
During a conference call held with reporters in August, the commander of
the IDF's Southern Command, Maj.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, said the wall will
prevent "the digging of tunnels into our territory," adding that
work is "advancing according to plan. In the coming months, this
project is going to significantly accelerate. We will see an expansion in
the scope of the works. Within two years, we will be able to complete
work."
Many details about the wall remain classified. But IDF sources have
previously indicated that the wall will come with electronic sensors. The
sensors will issue alerts to military control centers, sounding the alarm
about suspicious tunnel digging activity.
The control rooms, would, in turn, be able to order action if necessary.
Similar military control rooms are popping up along the Gaza border to
handle intelligence coming in from Israel's above-ground border fence.
Sensors installed on the barrier, together with units from the IDF's Combat
Intelligence Collection Corps, are joined by drones, spy balloons, and
radars, all feed the control centers with a flow of data, and alert them to
suspicious activity.
The big question now is whether Hamas will sit back and watch Israel
take away its offensive tunnel option, or whether it will feel cornered and
strike out, risking a new conflict.
"We very much hope we will not be challenged as this [work]
continues," said Zamir. "We hope that this quiet will continue,
but continue to prepare. We are on high alert."
Hamas's military wing, the Izzadin Al-Qassam Brigades, issued a statement earlier this month saying that the
underground wall "will not limit the ability of the resistance,"
and vowing to "find the solutions needed to overcome it."
But Hamas is unlikely to launch attacks in response to Israel's wall,
Ely Karmon, a senior research scholar at the International Institute for
Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, told the Investigative Project on
Terrorism.
"They cannot initiate a military maneuver now. The timing is bad
for them," he said, citing Hamas's financial woes, made worse by the
fact that Qatar, under U.S. pressure, is cutting off the cash flow to the
Gaza Strip.
Hamas wants to engage Egypt to improve its isolation and find a way out
of its financial crisis. It just opened an office in Cairo. It cannot depend on friends
like Turkey, which has a limited ability to provide assistance, Karmon
said. "Beyond that, Hamas is under pressure from the Palestinian
Authority. A new military clash with Israel will harm them," he said.
During his remarks, Zamir said that the "Gaza arena is
stable," adding, "We have identified that Hamas remains deterred,
and that it is restraining many attacks [by smaller Palestinian armed
factions]."
At the same time, he said, Hamas is encouraging the flames of terrorism
to spread in the West Bank, and is orchestrating terror cells remotely, as
it prepares itself for future war in Gaza.
That's an assessment that was echoed by Karmon, who said Hamas is most
likely to respond to Israel's improved position against the tunnels in Gaza
by upping attempts to generate terrorism from the West Bank.
Hamas, together with Iran, could try to smuggle rockets into the West
Bank, Karmon said, citing a directive by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Khamenei to assist West Bank terrorist cells.
"The Iranians understood that Hamas is deterred in Gaza, and
limited in what it can do," Karmon said.
As a result, Hamas likely will remain focused on igniting the West Bank,
and using it as a launchpad for terrorist attacks on Israel, he said.
Karmon cited information unveiled by the chief of Israel's domestic
intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, in recent days, which told the government that about 200 terror attacks had
been thwarted in 2017.
"Most of the big attacks [that were stopped by the Shin Bet] were
organized by Hamas, not Fatah," Karmon said. "Hamas's whole
campaign is focused on the West Bank, and includes using clans that support
Hamas, and distributing propaganda for violent incitement. They are
neutralized in Gaza, and are trying to heat up the West Bank."
Meanwhile, back in Gaza, Hamas continues neglecting the basic needs of
the 2 million Palestinians it rules over, as it remains focused on its
quiet military build-up, according to the chief of the IDF's Southern
Command.
"Many resources in Gaza are going to the Hamas military wing. They
could be used instead to improve the humanitarian situation," Zamir
said. "We continue to prepare. Reality is explosive. It could
deteriorate into a conflict at any time."
In addition to offensive tunnels, Hamas has built a maze of tunnels that
crisscross Gaza City. Zamir described them as "an underground metro
network," designed to move Hamas armed members, weapons, and logistics
out of Israel's sight.
Yet Israel's Southern Command is watching these activities closely, and
preparing a range of solutions designed to enable Israel to turn Hamas's
underground city into a large death trap if a new conflict begins.
The IDF's Southern Command recently sent out images of civilian
facilities in Gaza that Hamas uses as a cover for its military-terrorist
activities.
One image is of a six-story residential building, which Hamas used to
build an underground facility nearby, according to the military. The second
photo is a of a home containing a family with five children, which is
linked to a tunnel that leads to a mosque, enabling Hamas terrorists to
move underground and use human shields as they do.
This type of activity "endangers the civilians of Gaza," Zamir
cautioned. "We hope that this quiet will continue, but we are
continuing to prepare, and are on high alert."
Yaakov Lappin is a military and strategic affairs correspondent. He
also conducts research and analysis for defense think tanks, and is the
Israel correspondent for IHS Jane's Defense Weekly. His book, The
Virtual Caliphate, explores the online jihadist presence.
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