Gaza, Batacchi: why “wired” tunnels make interception difficult

The State of Israel is ready for the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, for its part, says it will only discuss the hostage issue when the attacks end. What most worries the world, which has been holding its breath for two weeks due to the escalation of the conflict that is bringing the Middle East to its knees, is the possibility of the most frightening scenarios becoming reality. Pietro Batacchi took stock. The director of Rivista Italiana Difesa gave an interview to RaiNews to try to clarify how the war will evolve. “From the first moment I stated that Israel had no alternative other than deep and lasting military action inside the Gaza Strip because the objective cannot be achieved with air strikes alone,” he began by saying.

The ground operation, announced by Israel, is necessary for Batacchi. “There was certainly an air campaign that was unprecedented in terms of intensity and that enormously weakened Hamas’ military capabilities, but to complete the operation a ground operation was also necessary which is risky because Gaza is an urban setting and is a densely populated area,” explained the director of Rivista Italiana Difesa. He then continued: “Israel, from this point of view, has no alternative and has chosen to take this risk based on the fact that the October 7 attack and surprise by Hamas radically changed the terms of the conflict, so today Israel is willing to risk much more than in the past.”

However, one aspect that complicates military action and that could “harm” Israeli soldiers is the presence of the famous Gaza tunnels. “It is clear that Hamas’s underground infrastructure considerably complicates the operation, as these are not just tunnels, but areas created underground in which Hamas maintains a series of valuable military capabilities that up until now have always allowed it to keep the heart of its own infrastructure: command and control capabilities, depots, rocket manufacturing workshops, tunnels, everything connected with fiber and this makes interception difficult on the Israeli side,” Batacchi said. “Of course the Israeli armed forces, therefore the infantry forces, the commandos and the special forces will also have to go underground and fight in these conditions that are clearly not optimal, but as I said before, the 7th of October changed all the terms of the conflict”, he concluded.