ISRAELIS GO DEEP TO STOP STRIKES

Since the start of the sec­ond Intifada, tun­nels dug beneath the Gaza Strip have become an under­ground high­way for Palestinian mil­i­tants and their weapons. “Israeli secu­rity forces have uncov­ered more than 100 tun­nels, some as long as 800 meters, as deep as 15 meters” in the last four years, Defense News’ Barbara Opall-​​Rome notes.
Now — even with signs of ten­sions cool­ing — the Israelis are try­ing a blend of tac­tics and tech­nol­ogy to try to close off the tun­nels.

IDF will soon acquire… 100-​​ton vehi­cles known here as the Trencher to rapidly dig tun­nels and ditches. Water-​​filled trenches, which seep into the soft, sandy soil of the Rafah bor­der area, can col­lapse tun­nels lying under­neath.
Defense and indus­try experts say acoustic, seis­mic, ther­mal and other sen­sors promise to help as well.
One poten­tial solu­tion, by Herzliya, Israel-​​based Hadas Detection and Decoding, is intended to detect tun­nels more than 20 meters under­ground. Known as the Underground Fence Solution or the UltraFence, and mar­keted by Rafael Armament Development Authority, the sys­tem ana­lyzes acoustic noise and seis­mic changes to dis­tin­guish types of under­ground activ­i­ties such as dig­ging, walk­ing or motor­ized move­ment…
The other sys­tem under eval­u­a­tion uses under­ground seis­mic anten­nas. Developed by Electro-​​Optic Research and Development (EORD), a national lab­o­ra­tory affil­i­ated with Israel’s Technion University in Haifa, the sys­tem fil­ters out noise to deter­mine the pre­cise nature and loca­tion of under­ground threats…
While many strug­gle to devise tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions, a senior oper­a­tions offi­cer sug­gested Israel might con­sider a Palestinian tac­tic.
Since late January, when the Palestine Authority assumed respon­si­bil­ity for secu­rity in Rafah, Palestinian secu­rity forces have uncov­ered and destroyed two arms-​​smuggling tun­nels. In at least one of those instances, local secu­rity offi­cials filled the tun­nel with raw sewage.
“When we go in and destroy tun­nels, it’s some­times only a mat­ter of time until the debris is cleared and the tun­nel is reopened for busi­ness. But they filled the tun­nel with [excre­ment], which totally clogged all the air holes for breath­ing. That tun­nel won’t be used for years,” an IDF offi­cer said.

February 17th, 2005 | Sabra Tech | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.