‘Israel begins flooding Gaza tunnels with seawater on limited basis’

Washington, Dec 13: A US official said Israel has informed Washington that they have started “carefully testing out” flooding some of Gaza’s tunnels with seawater “on a limited basis” to test the ability to degrade the Hamas militant group’s underground network on a larger scale.
The official told CNN on Tuesday that the Israelis were still unsure of whether it will work. “But they assured the US that they are being careful to only test it in tunnels where they do not believe hostages are being held,” he added.
On Tuesday night when asked by reporters about the development, US President Joe Biden said: “With regard to the flooding of the tunnels, I’m not at liberty – well, there is assertions being made that they’re quite sure there are no hostages in any of these tunnels, but I don’t know that for a fact. “I do know that, though, every civilian death is an absolute tragedy.”
The Israeli military or government have not commented on the report, reports CNN. Earlier this month, Israel’s army had said that it destroyed at least 500 tunnel shafts in Gaza and located more than 800 around the Hamas-controlled enclave. The military said last week that many of the tunnel shafts “were located in civilian areas” and inside civilian structures. In 2021, Hamas claimed to have built 500 km worth of tunnels under Gaza, though it is unclear if that figure was accurate or posturing.
Israel losing support
due to random
bombing: Biden
In his strongest criticism yet of Israel since Hamas launched its massive assault on October 7, US President Joe Biden has said that the Jewish nation is losing support due to the “indiscriminate bombing” of the Gaza Strip. Addressing a donors’ fundraising event here on Tuesday night, the President said: “Israel’s security can rest on the US, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world.
“But they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place (Gaza)”.
Biden, however, added that there was “no question about the need to take on Hamas” and Israel had “every right” to do so, reports the BBC.
In a statement shortly after Biden’s remarks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had received the “full backing” of the US for its ground war as well as its goal of destroying Hamas and recovering hostages.
He added that Washington had blocked “international pressure to stop the war”. (IANS)