Tunnels have run under Gaza for decades. But when Hamas took over, the underground network expanded into what Israel calls its biggest military threat. We decoded the long history of the Gaza tunnels to find out what makes it so hard to destroy.
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00:00 The vast tunnel network under Gaza began decades ago with cross-border smuggling and grew after
00:07 Hamas seized control of the Strip, leading to a tighter blockade.
00:13 Residents have used it to bring in gas, animals, textbooks, cars, even KFC.
00:20 "As the Palestinians often say, those who live in a cage will always try and dig their
00:26 way out."
00:29 They are also the main way Hamas smuggles money and weapons into Gaza from Egypt.
00:36 Israel has spent decades and reportedly billions of dollars trying to detect and destroy them.
00:44 "There has been almost a cat and mouse game.
00:51 As Israel has tried to combat the tunnels, Hamas has gone deeper."
00:56 And it's hard to say exactly how many hundreds of miles of secret tunnels run underneath
01:02 the Gaza Strip.
01:04 Especially because many of the videos we see today were released by Hamas or the Israel
01:10 Defense Forces and haven't been independently verified.
01:14 We went through decades of footage and news reports to figure out how this tunnel network
01:19 got started, how extensive it might actually be, and why it's so hard to destroy.
01:28 The firepower it takes to hit a tunnel can cause massive destruction and casualties.
01:34 "What we call bunker-busting munitions can go about 100 feet underground at the height
01:42 of it or 20 feet of concrete."
01:48 Engineers have experimented with robots like this one and relied on human intelligence.
01:54 "It's so dangerous to even to identify a tunnel because of how easy it is for them
02:00 to be rigged for booby traps or explosives."
02:03 But what the IDF calls the Gaza Metro seems to have continued growing.
02:09 "It's really hard, but not impossible, to dig tunnels in complete silence and secrecy."
02:17 "Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron fist and anyone who speaks about some of these
02:23 tunnels will be dealt with very harshly.
02:26 So today, while most Palestinians know about these tunnels, very few would be willing to
02:30 publicly speak about them."
02:32 Geologists say the soil here is perfect for building tunnels.
02:37 A combination of sand and dust, which creates soft sediment that's easy to dig through
02:43 and sturdy enough to not collapse.
02:47 Even Greek and Roman armies dug tunnels here.
02:50 "Perhaps one of the most intriguing discoveries is this 2,000-year-old tunnel here at Rafah.
02:57 They were probably used for fighting."
02:59 Some say the first modern tunnel was dug here in 1967 by a Palestinian militant who became
03:06 known as the Che Guevara of Gaza.
03:09 But digging really seems to have taken off in the early 1980s.
03:14 After a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt divided the town of Rafah between Gaza
03:20 and Egypt.
03:21 At the time, many people were still using the tunnels to smuggle in goods from Egypt
03:28 since basic supplies were hard to come by.
03:31 "Poverty is increasing while the economy gets worse.
03:36 Israel can, at any time, seal off the border crossing and control people's standards
03:42 of living."
03:43 The smuggling tunnels increasingly became a security concern for Israel.
03:52 When gunmen attacked a Jewish settlement inside Gaza in 1994, Israel claimed they'd escaped
03:58 through tunnels.
04:00 That same year, the Israeli army said it found an entire network running under Gaza's southern
04:06 border.
04:09 Authorities didn't know who exactly dug them or when.
04:14 That's around when Hamas began to gain popularity.
04:17 "Hamas is openly admired and supported here.
04:22 Part of the reason is that it supports welfare projects such as this nursery."
04:27 Experts say Hamas began building more tunnels in the late 90s.
04:32 The IDF told Business Insider that the network is huge.
04:36 "There are hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of tunnels that have been built throughout
04:41 the history of the conflict.
04:42 Hamas over the years have boasted about the extent of their tunnel system.
04:48 So you don't need to believe us, at least believe them, what they're saying."
04:52 And Israel began targeting them in the early 2000s, when Hamas blew up an Israeli military
04:58 post in Gaza from below.
05:01 Experts said many entrances were inside the homes of Gazans who were digging from their
05:06 basements under the border and into the homes of relatives on the Egyptian side.
05:11 "We didn't touch, according to the information in my hands, any innocent houses."
05:19 Israel said that Palestinians were using tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
05:25 Clashes went on for years.
05:29 In 2005, Israel withdrew all its soldiers and settlers from Gaza.
05:35 But the conflict didn't end.
05:38 "Now the Israelis have pulled out, but the guns are still coming in."
05:43 Israel blew up this tunnel that it said Hamas used to kidnap and kill Israeli soldiers guarding
05:49 the border, including Gilad Shalit.
05:53 Israel claimed they took him through an entrance that was inside a Palestinian home a few hundred
05:58 meters from the border fence.
06:00 "His abduction, a justification for what now appears to be a well-planned Israeli campaign.
06:06 This afternoon we watched shell after shell pounding northern Gaza."
06:10 That same year, Hamas won the election.
06:16 Most Western countries consider Hamas a terrorist group.
06:20 "Hamas has always been an organization that has rejected any kind of compromise with Israel.
06:28 Reducing terror as a way of thwarting negotiations.
06:32 The international community created a boycott of Hamas.
06:35 So part of that boycott was no ability to import and export from Gaza."
06:40 It became even more difficult to get anything beyond basic goods, like food and medical
06:45 supplies, past the military checkpoints.
06:50 Everything else needed special approval.
06:52 "It's the only way food can reach the Palestinians trapped inside, and it's strictly controlled
06:58 by the Israelis."
07:01 Construction supplies were especially restricted, since Israel thought that they were being
07:06 used to build tunnels.
07:08 So Gazans had to get creative.
07:10 "This house is made from just one material.
07:13 It's mud.
07:15 We simply add straw and palm branches, which are also at hand."
07:20 The tunnel network continued to grow.
07:23 "Each one of these tents conceals a tunnel entrance only yards from the Egyptian border.
07:28 Israelis say that the tunnels supply the lifeblood of terrorism, but Palestinians say that they
07:34 are proof that Gaza refuses to die."
07:39 By now, they had installed phone lines and lights, as well as rails that made it easier
07:44 to move goods.
07:48 In 2009, Israel invaded Gaza and stayed for 15 days, saying it discovered another underground
07:59 passageway leading into Israel.
08:01 IDF soldiers said they found this map of escape tunnels and weapons caches.
08:07 "What this map proves is the way in which Hamas deliberately puts its own people directly
08:13 in the line of fire."
08:14 We reached out to Hamas for a response, but did not hear back.
08:19 "In Gaza, ordinary people are in danger, even inside their homes.
08:26 The targets here are the tunnels."
08:29 In 2009, The New York Times reported on an Israeli missile strike to destroy one of them.
08:40 That same year, Israeli intelligence officials told reporters that there was a Hamas complex
08:46 underneath Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa.
08:51 Israel knew about it because...
08:53 "Decades ago, we were running the place that we helped them to build these bunkers."
09:01 And in 2009, the UN said Israelis had no evidence that Hamas was using them and called for an
09:08 investigation.
09:10 Days later, Israel launched airstrikes, saying that it was targeting tunnels.
09:15 "Even by Gaza's standards, this level of destruction is unprecedented."
09:23 Reports suggest it hit hospitals and schools.
09:27 But the IDF claims, without concrete proof, that Hamas was using these civilian spaces
09:32 as a shield.
09:33 "There is no doubt in our minds, based on what we've seen, every hospital that we're
09:38 facing, we are seeing the extent of Hamas' infrastructure, how they're hiding it."
09:43 The IDF declared that Operation Cast Lead had reduced the network of 3,000 tunnels to
09:49 just a few hundred.
09:52 But people still kept digging.
09:54 "It is quite literally an underground economy, pitching Palestinian ingenuity against Israeli
10:02 high explosives."
10:03 Later that month, in January 2009, Egypt began building a barrier at its border to shut down
10:10 tunnels leading into its territory.
10:12 "If this metal barrier is permanent, the Gaza Strip will die because there is no exit,
10:17 only tunnels."
10:18 By 2013, the IDF says Hamas was building more advanced tunnels, with a different goal in
10:25 mind.
10:26 "Hamas uses it exclusively for the benefit of its fighters and its politicians.
10:31 These are tunnels to which the Gaza civilian population has absolutely no access.
10:36 It actually drove a wedge between Hamas and the Gaza population."
10:41 In 2013, the IDF discovered a tunnel it said was built with Israeli concrete, allowed in
10:48 because it was meant to help build schools and hospitals in Gaza.
10:53 "Hamas uses a very specific type of engineering.
10:56 They've spent millions, if not billions of dollars, in these prefabricated concrete
11:01 sides and archways, which prevents you from having to arch or support the tunnel as you
11:06 dig it."
11:07 Hamas even used explosive-proof doors in their tunnels, according to the IDF.
11:14 They could stretch for over a mile into Israel, this one leading directly to a kibbutz.
11:21 An IDF video claims to show Israel destroying it.
11:26 In 2014, Israel launched a military operation aimed at destroying tunnels used to store
11:33 rockets.
11:34 This video, published by Hamas, shows fighters supposedly preparing to launch a rocket.
11:40 "Most of the rockets are actually fed through their tunnels."
11:42 "They need a lot of time to do it."
11:45 "How long will it take to destroy all the tunnels?"
11:49 "Uh, I don't know."
11:52 "Nobody knows?"
11:53 "Nobody knows."
11:54 One of Israel's tactics was to blow up tunnels that connected to Israel from the inside.
12:04 The IDF took The Wall Street Journal on a tour of one of them.
12:07 "It's a very well-built and very high-quality material invested in this tunnel."
12:13 The IDF said it probably took an entire day to build just three feet of it.
12:19 "It's very hard to understand exactly where the tunnels go because they built them
12:23 beneath the buildings, civilian buildings, just regular buildings, regular hospitals."
12:29 The IDF published maps saying it uncovered 33 tunnels.
12:34 This one shows six going under the Israeli border.
12:39 This one shows an entire maze under Gaza.
12:43 And this maps out a Hamas military setup in a residential area, marking up combat posts,
12:50 hideouts, weapons caches, and tunnels.
12:54 "Many of us don't have access to classified intelligence, yet there is enough information
13:01 to show that Hamas fighters have been coming in and out of these tunnels.
13:05 This was something that was never denied by Hamas."
13:10 Israel ended the operation in August, saying it had destroyed 32 tunnels.
13:16 But soon after, Hamas took Reuters journalists on a tour, claiming that this was one of the
13:22 tunnels Israel said it had destroyed.
13:25 "They don't ask us.
13:27 They're tied to these tunnels, ready to do anything."
13:32 Over the next few years, Israel kept targeting tunnels from the air, often striking residential
13:39 areas.
13:40 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:41 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:42 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:43 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:44 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:45 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:46 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:47 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:48 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:49 "Hello, I'm at the front!"
13:50 Since 2014, Israel has spent over $1 billion to detect tunnels, according to media reports.
13:57 "So human intelligence, usually informants, determining where are the openings, the closings,
14:03 where do they go.
14:04 So there's a constant aerial surveillance over Gaza."
14:08 Hezbollah, another militant group in Lebanon, has also built tunnels on Israel's northern
14:15 border.
14:16 The IDF sealed this one off in 2019.
14:21 But these tunnels are built differently.
14:24 "They're very open because they had to be drilled through rock.
14:28 Diamond-tipped drills, taking months and months to drill through the rock."
14:35 And this one, for example, sits 260 feet underground, supposedly even deeper than Hamas's.
14:43 After bombing Gaza for 11 days in 2021, the IDF released this map of the tunnels it claimed
14:50 to have destroyed.
14:52 Israel says it's done its best to be surgical to minimize civilian casualties.
15:02 But the strikes killed at least 260 people and injured nearly 2,000 more.
15:10 "There's a sense that among most Palestinians that the attacks are not only on Hamas, but
15:20 are on Gaza in general."
15:23 Over the years, many countries have created special units to conduct tunnel warfare.
15:29 The IDF has one called Samor, which translates to "weasels."
15:34 "It's a very, very dark environment.
15:38 You never know what's ahead.
15:40 You have to rely on each other."
15:44 They train in replica tunnels and with virtual reality.
15:49 But actual tunnel warfare is much more low-tech.
15:52 "So as soon as you enter a tunnel, most things that work on the surface stop working."
15:59 "Most night-vision goggles rely on ambient light, which is not going to be in a tunnel.
16:03 Most radios rely on radio frequencies that are either line of sight or either from satellites.
16:09 None of that will work underground because you can't receive those signals."
16:13 Five decades ago, the U.S. military also had a specialized unit that trained for underground
16:19 combat in Vietnam.
16:21 They were nicknamed "tunnel rats."
16:24 They had to go inside these tunnels, which communist Vietnamese had started digging back
16:30 in the 1940s when they fought for independence from the French.
16:34 "What are your feelings when you're down there?"
16:37 "You can hear your blood going through your veins."
16:40 Fighters also used underground caves and tunnels in Afghanistan.
16:44 "Al-Qaeda fell in on bunker complexes that were developed for, during the Afghan-Soviet
16:51 war."
16:52 More recently in Ukraine, in the towns of Mariupol and Bakhmut, soldiers report using
16:58 old underground passageways to fight Russia.
17:00 "Like the Avestal Steel Plant, which was, they had underground tunnels and bunkers for
17:06 the workers to escape like a chemical disaster."
17:10 And even in Gaza, where the underground network is thought to have grown massively over the
17:15 past two decades, their use has evolved.
17:20 Tunnel workers told the New York Times that they run at multiple levels.
17:26 And experts say Hamas took on that underground potential to build kidnap tunnels and attack
17:32 tunnels.
17:33 "We were very successful in dismantling and destroying tunnels that penetrated into
17:37 Israel's border.
17:38 We've never had a strategic goal of destroying all of the tunnel system.
17:42 What we're facing today is a completely different war with different goals."
17:49 On October 7th, Hamas launched a coordinated terrorist attack on Israel, killing about
17:54 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages underground.
18:00 The IDF invaded Gaza again, planning to destroy more tunnels.
18:06 Hostages who have been released have described what it was like being held in them.
18:10 "They walked for a few kilometers on the wet ground.
18:16 There are a huge network of tunnels underneath.
18:23 It looks like a spider web."
18:25 Hamas claims that many hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
18:31 That hasn't been independently verified.
18:34 And Israel has said bringing people home is a top priority.
18:39 But it admitted to have shot and killed three hostages by mistake.
18:45 Some released captives even said they were more afraid of being killed by an IDF bomb
18:50 than by their Hamas captors.
18:53 But within Gaza, some Palestinians have blamed Hamas.
19:03 The IDF again pointed to the biggest hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa, saying it hides a massive
19:09 Hamas complex underneath.
19:15 This is an illustration of Shifa Hospital and the underground facilities.
19:23 Hamas denies it, and so has the director of the hospital.
19:27 Israel says a tunnel runs about 180 feet down under the hospital.
19:33 And I'm standing at the opening of the shaft.
19:36 This has been shown to the press.
19:38 We can't see all the way down, but this is how deep it goes.
19:43 But independent researchers say they've found no evidence that Hamas was using the
19:48 rooms these tunnels supposedly connected to.
19:53 And the IDF's raids have made it nearly impossible for the hospital to keep operating.
20:00 Reports indicate that only a handful of doctors remain, despite the thousands of people who
20:05 need medical care.
20:10 There's been even conflicting statements from Israel, whether or not they would or
20:14 would not attack a hospital or a refugee camp.
20:17 But the evidence is very clearly shifted in the way that, yes, they will.
20:24 When missiles said to have hit tunnels struck this refugee camp, over 50 people were killed,
20:30 according to Palestinian authorities.
20:34 On November 6th, the IDF said it had proof that Hamas was digging under yet another hospital,
20:40 the Indonesian hospital.
20:42 The only thing that you need, concrete domes like this, is to support tunnels.
20:48 That's what Hamas was building.
20:51 This is 2020, so quite a lot of construction has been made.
20:54 This is the Indonesian hospital, which now is fully built.
20:58 The tunnel shaft is here.
21:04 The IDF bombed the surrounding area three days later.
21:17 And then the hospital itself.
21:20 The attacks killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more.
21:26 But the tunnel videos the IDF has released so far are hard to verify without actually
21:32 being there.
21:33 And there are tons of them flooding the internet right now from other sources as well.
21:41 There is footage that is being reused, recycled, that's old around the internet.
21:44 This one here, that is not a Hamas tunnel.
21:47 It's an old transmitter facility in Sweden.
21:50 On December 17th, Israel said that it had discovered the biggest tunnel yet.
21:56 It supposedly stretches for two and a half miles and is wide enough for cars to drive
22:01 through.
22:02 And the IDF says the tunnels have multiple hidden ways in and out.
22:09 We've destroyed several thousands of access points, around 2,000 access points.
22:17 But the amount of the length is several hundreds of kilometers.
22:25 As of early January, Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that Israeli strikes have
22:30 killed over 23,000 people since the war began.
22:34 The IDF told us it believes those numbers are inflated, but that it won't stop fighting
22:40 until Hamas is gone.
22:46 And researchers believe Hamas' tunnel network is so big, the IDF may never be able to destroy
22:53 it all.
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