US media claim: 'Israel has begun pumping water into tunnels in Gaza'
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), US officials have claimed that Israel has begun implementing its plan to pump seawater into "Hamas tunnels" in Gaza.
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Officials stated that the process of flooding the tunnels, which is expected to take weeks, will be carried out using 7 separate pump systems.
It was reported that an Israeli Ministry of Defense spokesperson refrained from commenting on the matter, stating that operations involving the tunnels are classified.
On the other hand, some officials who had previously spoken to the newspaper had stated that releasing seawater into the tunnels would contaminate Gaza's freshwater sources and damage infrastructure.
While some US officials expressed concerns regarding the plan, others stated that the US supports disabling the tunnels and would not oppose the plan.
Israel had claimed that it had identified approximately 800 tunnels, but that the tunnel network was much larger than known.
HOSTAGE RELATIVES HAD REACTED
Some Israeli women released from the Gaza Strip and relatives of hostages had reacted to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the Israeli army's plan to "pump water" into the tunnels where hostages are held.
According to reports by the Walla and Ynet websites on December 6, a woman who was recently released but whose husband is still being held hostage in Gaza expressed her reactions to Israeli officials during a meeting regarding reports of the army's plan to "pump seawater" into tunnels where hostages are located.
The unnamed Israeli woman stated, "Three days before I returned to Israel, my husband was separated from me and taken to the tunnels. While they (the Israeli hostages) are in the tunnels, are you talking about filling them with seawater? You are bombing the tunnel paths exactly where they (the hostages) are located."