October 22, 2024: The loose soil of the Gaza strip area has made it possible to easily build tunnels for military or economic reasons. This is nothing new for this area as there are records of tunnels built for military purposes in this region over 2,500 years ago. People in Gaza began building tunnels along the Egyptian border over two decades ago. These were for smuggling, not combat. One was used by a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise just over the Egyptian border to deliver on-order meals in Gaza.

That changed when Sunni Islamic terrorist group Hamas won the 2007 elections to unite the Palestinian Authority, or PA, in the West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip near the Egyptian border. Hamas won the election but the PA refused to recognize the election results. While technically still allies, Hamas and the PA were also sometimes violent rivals. There has long been low-level anti-Israel activity in the West Bank but until October 2023, Hamas forces in Gaza were relatively quiet. That changed in October 2023 when Hamas surprised the complacent Israelis by pouring out of Gaza heavily armed and seeking, as Palestinians have long sought, to destroy Israel. Hamas killed over a thousand Israelis and foreigners, including some Israeli soldiers before the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, counter attacked and drove Hamas gunmen back into Gaza. Hamas fighters largely retreated to their tunnel system under Gaza. The IDF was surprised to discover that there were hundreds of kilometers of tunnels under the Gaza Strip, with some of them reaching the Israeli border.

Tunnel construction had become a major economic activity in Gaza and Hamas diverted a lot of the humanitarian aid money and resources away from needy Palestinians and into tunnel construction. Many Palestinian men found employment in the tunnel project. The workers were supervised and guarded by Hamas fighters. Hamas members were often part of the workforce, especially when it came to the final construction activities that involved outfitting some tunnels for military operations.

For over a year now the IDF has been fighting in Gaza and seeking to find and destroy as many of the Gaza tunnels as they can. Destroyed tunnels means less cover for Hamas military activity. Many of the tunnels had access to electrical power and telephone landlines connected to the outside world, or just used in the tunnels by Hamas. The IDF found numerous tunnels that were expanded to provide military barracks, storage areas and headquarters. In effect, Hamas had constructed an underground base for their armed forces in the tunnels. Israeli intelligence efforts had missed this aspect of Hamas underground facilities and that led to the heavy Israeli losses in October 2023. Those losses were the largest number of Jewish deaths since the World War 2 German effort to exterminate all European Jews. By the time World War II was over, six million Jews had died or were murdered. Israel was founded in 1948 by European Jews insisting that never again would they allow so many Jews to be killed. That made the 2023 losses in Gaza a shocking wake up call.

Israelis had underestimated and undercounted Hamas and full scale war between the IDF and the surviving Hamas gunmen in Gaza followed. The Israelis are determined to kill or capture all the Hamas members in Gaza. This still leaves about 10,000 Hamas members operational. Before this war began there were 20,000 Hamas operatives. The survivors exist throughout the Middle East and Europe. The major Hamas financiers are in Turkey and the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, and also provide refuge for the surviving Hamas leaders and some of the gunmen. In exile the Hamas gunmen are unarmed, but new weapons are readily available in several Arab countries as well as Turkey.

Hamas was founded with the goal of destroying Israel and driving all Jews from the Middle East. As Israelis like to say, never again. Hamas finds itself constantly frustrated and regularly depleted of many members lost trying to destroy Israel. Ancient animosities and centuries long feuds are a staple of Middle Eastern life. Usually it's Arab versus Arab, but occasionally it is Arabs versus Westerners, Persians or Israelis. Above ground or underground, these battles have been going on in this region for thousands of years.