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MembersCostly Gaza tunnel warfare lessons

The asymmetric subterranean theater of guerrilla warfare.

View into a tunnel on the border with Israel. Photo: Dario Sanchez/Flash90
View into a tunnel on the border with Israel. Photo: Dario Sanchez/Flash90

As soon as the October 7th war flames erupted, the IDF sought to discern what was lacking and make necessary changes.

One lesson to be learned is what went wrong to allow the surprise attack of the 7th. For example, the Intelligence Corps and their famed Unit 8200 are making changes in how they train their soldiers throughout the ranks against the subtle misconception of safety that years of relative calm can bring.

A second huge lesson concerns the dominant role of tunnel warfare in Gaza. And this is one that other armies around the world are looking at very closely.

Already aware of the problem, the IDF had been preparing troops for the tunnel threat, having doubled the IDF Engineering tunnel forces for this reason over the last decade.

However, they never before had to fully engage with the entirety of the Hamas tunnel system with its immense scale. The total prewar tunnel length was estimated at 500-600 km, with over 5,000 tunnels shafts. (The whole Gaza Strip is only 41 km long and 9 to 13 km...

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Patrick Callahan

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