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december
Asia-Pacific** refers to the northAccording to Business Insider, Israel is said to be injecting seawater into Hamas's network of underground tunnels in Gaza. Business Insider quoted Wall Street ** as reporting that on the 12th, Israel began to divert water from the Mediterranean Sea to carry out this activity. Israel reportedly appears to have done so to force Hamas militants in the tunnels to leave so that Israel could attack them. The "flooded tunnel" strategy may sound shocking, but it's not new, and Egypt has done the same thing at least twice, and once with sewage. According to a 2013 report in the New York Times, Mohamed Morsi, then Egypt's director, wanted to close the tunnels connecting Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula in order to curb the smuggling activities that took place in those tunnels. To this end, Morsi ordered the flooding of more than 20 tunnels in the area with foul-smelling wastewater. Now, Egypt is beginning to flood these tunnels with seawater pumped from the Mediterranean, almost exactly what Israel is doing now. Egypt** confirmed to Al Jazeera that the operation was underway, again with the aim of ending the smuggling activities. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt said that Egypt's actions were approved by the Palestinian Authority. But after Egypt's first attempt, several Palestinian factions condemned Egypt's actions in a September 2015 joint statement, saying it would destroy farmland and pollute groundwater, according to Middle East Monitor. Similar concerns have now been expressed. Some analysts say that this Israeli activity could exacerbate water pollution in Gaza and cause environmental damage. There is also an additional risk to consider this time around, as to whether this will result in the deaths of the 100 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 who have not yet been released.
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