ハマス地下トンネル網への海水注水、専門家は懸念

【ガザ市ＡＦＰ＝時事】イスラエル軍がパレスチナ自治区ガザ地区で、イスラム組織ハマスの地下トンネル網への注水を試験的に開始したとされることについて、専門家は、ガザの民間人に多大なリスクを負わせる危険な選択だと指摘している。（写真はパレスチナ自治区ガザ地区のシファ病院で、イスラム組織ハマスが掘ったとイスラエル軍が主張するトンネルを示す同軍兵士）
　イスラエル軍は、１０月７日のハマスによる南部への越境攻撃を受け、トンネル網の破壊を決断。注水を提案したヘルツィ・ハレビ参謀総長は、「名案」だとしている。
　米ニューヨーク州ウエストポイントにある陸軍士官学校の分析によれば、イスラエル軍が「ガザ・メトロ」と呼ぶ、地下に迷路のように張り巡らされたトンネル網は１０月７日時点で、１３００本のトンネルで構成され、総延長は５００キロ以上に及ぶ。
　２００７年にハマスがガザを武力制圧して実効支配するようになると、イスラエルはガザを封鎖。地下トンネル網は当初、封鎖をかいくぐってエジプトとの人の往来や物品・武器の密輸に使われていた。
　２０１４年のイスラエルとハマスの軍事衝突の後に延長され、戦闘員がガザ各地からイスラエルにロケット弾攻撃を仕掛けるために使われるようになった。
　米シンクタンク、ランド研究所の軍事専門家、ラファエル・コーエン氏によれば、今年１０月にガザに侵攻したイスラエル軍はトンネル網が「予想よりも深く広範囲に及んでいる」ことに気付いた。
　イスラエル軍は１２月、８００か所で立て坑を発見し、うち５００か所を破壊したと発表。立て坑は学校やモスク（イスラム礼拝所）、公園などの民間人居住区にあったと主張している。
　一方で軍は、地下トンネル網の封鎖・破壊計画について詳細を明らかにしていない。
　イスラエルメディアによれば、軍はトンネル網に地中海からくみ上げた海水を注入する手法を支持している。公共放送のチャンネル１１は１４日、注水試験が成功したと報じた。
　だが、ランド研究所のコーエン氏はＡＦＰに対し、注水は必ず「副次的な影響」を伴うと指摘し、「トンネルを破壊すれば、地上のインフラに影響が及ぶ」と述べた。
　ハマスは、イスラエルにトンネル網は破壊できないと考えているようだ。レバノンを拠点とするハマスの幹部、ウサマ・ハムダン氏は１４日の会見で、「トンネル網は、十分な訓練と教育を受けた技術者によって造られている。爆撃や水攻めなど、あらゆる攻撃を想定している」と主張した。
　地中海に面し、幅６～１２キロしかないガザは既に、海面上昇によって地下水の塩分濃度が高くなるなどの大きな問題に直面している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/12/18-17:37）

Israel has reportedly started to test a plan to flood Hamas's sprawling tunnel network, but experts say it is a dangerous option that poses huge risks to Gaza's besieged civilians.
The military is determined to destroy the tunnels after Hamas's October 7 attack in southern Israel, and army chief Herzi Halevi has suggested pumping water into them is a good idea.
AFP takes a look at Hamas's tunnel network and Israel's bid to destroy it.
- 'Gaza metro' -
Dubbed the Gaza metro by the Israeli military, there were 1,300 tunnels over 500 kilometres (310 miles) in Gaza at the start of the war in October, according to a study from US military academy West Point.
The maze of tunnels was initially used to bypass Israel's devastating blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas came to power in 2007, allowing the smuggling of people, goods and weaponry in and out of Egypt.
It extended the network after the 2014 Israel-Hamas war and uses them to emerge across Gaza to launch rocket attacks on Israel.
- Since October 7 -
Since entering Gaza in October, the Israeli military has found that the tunnel network is even more extensive and deeper than they expected, Raphael Cohen, military expert for the US-based Rand Corporation, told AFP.
The Israeli army has found more than 800 tunnel shafts, 500 of which have been destroyed, it said in December.
It claimed the shafts were in civilian areas of the densely-populated territory, including schools, mosques and playgrounds.
In November the Israeli army sparked outcry when it stormed the Al-Shifa hospital, claiming to have found a 55-metre tunnel in its basement.
Israel shared footage which it said proved hostages had been held there, which Hamas denied.
- Hostages -
Israel estimates that 250 people were taken as hostages into Gaza in the October 7 attack, which Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Its retaliatory offensive has left much of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 18,700 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Several of the 105 hostages freed during a week-long truce that ended on December 1 described being held captive in the tunnels.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that the bodies of two hostages were found in the underground infrastructure in Gaza.
- Destroying the tunnels -
The Israeli army has not said exactly how it plans to destroy or block the tunnels in the small coastal territory.
But Israeli media reports that the army is leaning towards flooding the tunnels with seawater pumped from the Mediterranean.
There have been successful tests, public broadcaster Channel 11 reported Thursday.
But Rand's Cohen told AFP there are always second-order consequences with such tactics.
There's no good way of destroying a tunnel without affecting the infrastructure above ground, he said.
Hamas doubts Israel's ability to destroy the tunnels.
Those tunnels were built by well-trained and educated engineers, and they have considered any kind of attacks that may happen including bombing and water, senior Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan told a press conference on Thursday.
- Eco-hazard -
The narrow Gaza Strip is only between six and 12 kilometres (about 3.7 to 7.5 miles) wide and the territory's water tables were already facing a huge problem from becoming too salty, worsened by rising sea levels.
That adds to a chronically faulty wastewater system and the uncontrolled used of pesticides and herbicides in intensive agricultural zones, said Eilon Adar, from the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Combined, these factors have had very serious consequences on Gaza's water quality, Adar told AFP.