Israel Matzav

The IDF's first priority

Walla! is reporting that the IDF has destroyed eight tunnels in Gaza so far (link in Hebrew). Rotter.net reports that Channel 2's Arab affairs correspondent Ehud Yaari says that the IDF has found 30 (link in Hebrew).

Perhaps the discrepancy is because there's a difference between 'found' and 'destroyed.' But in any event, the IDF's top priority is destroying the tunnels.

Let's go to the videotape, and then we'll talk about why.




Just think how many schools or hospitals they could have built with all that concrete.

Here's why finding and destroying the tunnels is critical.

Israel must identify and destroy the complex tunnel infrastructure of Gaza to prevent future kidnappings and terrorist activity “before disaster occurs,” a geologist and defense expert told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.

...

“I’ve been warning them [the defense establishment] that the kidnapping, God forbid, of a few soldiers or a few civilians and their transfer as hostages to enemy territory – either along the border with Gaza or Lebanon – is a highly possible mode of action,” said Dr. Joseph Langotsky. He has been trying to convince defense officials of the importance of pinpointing and destroying the tunnels that exist in Gaza and along the Lebanese border for nearly a decade.

“For 10 years I’ve been crying and screaming to the highest possible levels – to the Defense Ministry, the chief of staff, the commanding officers of southern and northern command – that although the tunnels are a low-tech option, they might be a strategic threat to our security,” Langotsky told the Post.

Langotsky said he continually “bombarded” defense officials with warnings, but little effort was made to correct this strategic liability for many years. He also criticized the officials for failing to involve the Geophysical Institute of Israel in researching the tunnels problem.

The defense system began heeding his advice about two or three years ago, Langotsky explained.

“This is a change and a very good one, but unfortunately seven years were lost,” he said.

Many tunnels have already reached Israeli land, and systems that could have been deployed to detect the digging of tunnels into Israel are no longer helpful.

“It’s like closing the gates of the stable after the horses were stolen,” he said.

From here on, he said, he can only recommend “that the [defense] system wake up, be more open minded and listen to and follow my advice/ [They must] try to close the gap of seven years.”

Langotsky says that there are 'hundreds' of tunnels beneath Gaza. He is also the geologist responsible for Israel's offshore natural gas wells.

Read the whole thing. 

Shabbat Shalom. If you're in Israel, please stay safe, and if you're anywhere else, please keep those prayers coming (you can keep them coming in Israel too).

Labels: Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Operation Protective Edge, smuggling tunnels, weapons tunnels

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:08 PM