By: Eng. Yehuda Kfir and Tal Beeri
Nasrallah has frequently stated in recent years that Hezbollah is preparing “surprises” for the next confrontation with Israel. Nasrallah’s words were clearly intended for both the Israeli ear (as part of the psychological and information manipulation warfare) and the Lebanese ear (as part of the narrative to maintain Hezbollah’s status as the “defender of Lebanon”).
Hezbollah will likely utilize weapons, threats, and methods it never employed before in its forthcoming conflict with Israel to deliver a severe and unexpected blow (even if it is restricted and focused), eroding the IDF’s confidence and affecting Israeli perceptions among the general public.
In our opinion, explosive-filled terror tunnels are one of the threats and “surprises” that might be expected in a future confrontation with Hezbollah. The threat of terror tunnels is another layer in the underground infrastructure of Hezbollah’s “Land of the Tunnels” in Lebanon, which comprises attack tunnels, infrastructure tunnels, and strategic tunnels. In October 2021, we released an article regarding Hezbollah’s “Land of the Tunnels” underground infrastructure in Lebanon.
The usage of explosive-filled tunnels is less recognized. These tunnels are packed with explosives that run beneath a community, security facility, or geographical location where an explosion might harm the enemy. The tunnel is filled with tons of explosives and is sealed and activated at a determined moment.
Using these tunnels causes significant destruction. Due to their immense force and underground location, explosive charges in tunnels of this type, unlike bombs or missiles from the air, have the effect of an earthquake rather than a bomb and can thus destroy a community or an entire facility.
The utilization of this strategy during World War I is a distinct example of this. The Germans and the British excavated hundreds of such tunnels beneath no man’s land and extended defensive lines, wreaking havoc on the opposing side.
The Battle of the Messines Ridge (now French territory), which began on June 7, 1917, with a sequence of explosions of nineteen tunnels out of twenty-six excavated, is particularly noteworthy. Each tunnel contained a total of twenty-one tons of explosives. More than 400 tons of explosives exploded in total. The impact of the explosion could be heard as far away as London.
As a direct result of the explosion, it is estimated that 10,000 Germans were killed or buried alive beneath the mounds of dirt, and thousands of startled German soldiers were captured.
The French village of Ovillers-la-Boisselle is also well known, of which no trace remains, except for the foundations of a few houses, after dozens of tunnels were dug and exploded beneath it during the battles.
The Middle East now hosts the majority of the world’s underground warfare. During Syria’s civil war, the Al-Nusra Front and ISIS built tunnels and deployed explosives to strike permanent military sites of the Syrian government and the militias that fought alongside it.
One prominent example is the attack on the Syrian Air Force intelligence headquarters facility in Aleppo. Opposition forces exploded a substantial amount of explosives in a tunnel excavated near or beneath the structure on March 4, 2015. The explosion caused the building to collapse partially. Immediately following the explosion, opposition fighters launched a ground assault on the area.
Explosive-filled tunnels were also used against the Gaza Strip IDF forces in the early 2000s. In September 2001, an explosive-filled tunnel exploded beneath an IDF position known as “Old Termit” on the Gaza-Egypt border. The incident injured three soldiers and temporarily forced the IDF to evacuate the post. A similar occurrence occurred at the post on December 15, 2003, with no injuries.
The “Orhan” military post was destroyed in June 2004 by the explosion of hundreds of kilograms of explosives hidden beneath it in an explosive-filled tunnel. The explosion killed one soldier and injured five more. In another incident, a subterranean bomb was used against the JVT outpost in December 2004, killing five IDF troops.
Hezbollah’s potential use of explosive-filled tunnels:
Many Israeli military posts and communities along the border with Lebanon make it quite easy to dig such explosive-filled tunnels and plant bombs in them at will. These tunnels are more challenging for sensors to detect if they exist because they are sealed and there is no movement within them.
Sometimes there is no need to excavate directly beneath the target, and the explosives can be buried beneath the region near the target. The explosion’s force blows away the earth and rocks near the target, as well as the target itself. The effect is similar to a dirt and rock tsunami.
With correct planning, an explosion of this type can cover a building, a military base, or an entire population in a thick layer of earth, effectively burying everyone beneath it.
For example, an explosion under the Ramim ridge, which overlooks the city of Kiryat Shmona, might collapse parts of the mountain and endanger citizens and their homes.
Hezbollah ramps up public debate and awareness regarding the Radwan unit and its aim to breach the border barrier and invade the Galilee. The attention was most noticeable during Hezbollah’s huge military display on May 21. Only recently, on June 12, Hashem Safi al-Din, the Executive Council’s head, stated that if Israel made a mistake, Hezbollah’s rockets would reach Tel Aviv and the Radwan force would enter the Galilee.
Will the explosive-filled tunnels aid the Radwan unit in breaching the barrier and allowing them to invade the Galilee? The IDF’s discovery of Hezbollah’s attack tunnels in December 2018 (tunnels intended for use by the Radwan unit in its mission to invade the Galilee) led Hezbollah to rethink its strategy. It is conceivable to physically reach the Israeli border wall above ground and attach explosives to it while minimizing the risk of premature exposure of the operational force. However, from a tactical standpoint, it is preferable to damage the wall and cause it to fall via a concealed explosive-filled tunnel beneath it, either by filling an existing tunnel that is located under the wall with explosives or using a new tunnel that may be excavated at the time of this writing.
To summarize the remarks of Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, who was previously appointed by the Minister of Defense, to examine the issue of the subterranean: Immediately following Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, he claimed unequivocally that “Israel understood the danger of the tunnels but did not comprehend the actual meaning… There is a human barrier between intellectual and practical comprehension… To argue that I understood the practical significance of these tunnels in the same way that everyone else does now, the answer is no.”
The article was written by Eng. Yehuda Kfir and Tal Beeri. Mr. Kfir is a civil engineer and manager of construction and infrastructure projects and serves in the reserves as commander of the Home Front Command’s construction unit in emergencies. Tal Beeri is the Director of the Research Department at Alma.
