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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), currently conducting a ground operation to obliterate Hamas, are deploying dogs and robots into the Hamas underground tunnels instead of troops.
According to Bloomberg on the 16th (local time), the IDF is using advanced technology to search and destroy the underground tunnels, including Al-Shifa Hospital, and to track down the Hamas leadership.
This is to minimize personnel losses, given the likelihood that Hamas has set traps such as booby traps and the IDF does not know the exact structure of the Hamas tunnels, which are estimated to be about 310 miles long in total.
The IDF is sending combat dogs, unmanned vehicles, and robots into the tunnels to explore their structure. They are also using ‘sponge bombs’ that, instead of exploding when thrown into the tunnel, swell and harden, blocking entrances and crevices.
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The Israeli Ministry of Defense has requested cooperation from several companies, including the Israeli company ‘Utilis’, which detects sewage leaks through satellite images, to introduce such technology.
The IDF has specially trained combat engineers. However, there is an analysis that it is still dangerous to enter the tunnels as there is a risk of booby traps exploding and the knowledge about the tunnels is inferior to Hamas.
Itamar Yaar, the former deputy chairman of the Israeli National Security Council, said, “There is no need to enter the tunnel unless there is a special reason,” and “The best way is to collapse the tunnel and isolate the underground facilities.”
However, there are skeptical views about whether Hamas, who have hidden in the underground space without deploying personnel, can be completely eliminated.
Daphne Richmond-Barak, an underground warfare expert at Israel’s Reichman University, warned that it would be difficult to confirm how much of the tunnel had been destroyed by bombing without deploying ground forces, and that the tunnels could be used for long-term resistance even after the war.
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