'Israel' begins pumping seawater into Gaza's soil to 'flood tunnels'
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the process is expected to take several weeks to complete, without indicating metrics to measure its success.
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Israeli occupation soldiers on a beach in Gaza connecting large hoses to pumping stations extended from the sea toward the Strip, picture released on December 3, 2023 (AFP)
The Israeli occupation army began pumping salty seawater into Gaza's soil, in what "Israel" claims aims at flooding Resistance tunnel networks under the Strip, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Tuesday citing US officials.
The newspaper added that the whole process would take several weeks to complete without specifying clear indicators of its success.
Read more: WHO slams 'Israel' for delaying Gaza missions, detaining medical staff
However, on the Israeli side, as that of their allies, concerns arose regarding the nature of this operation. Over the course of the war on Gaza, "Israel" claimed that the captives were being held by the Resistance in tunnels under the Strip. Meanwhile, such a measure, if successful per Israeli objectives, would almost certainly lead to the death of captives placed in the targeted networks.
But the real catastrophe remains in the after-effect of such an aggression. International environmental and human rights organizations warned that this move, which would see the pumping and dumping of tens of millions of seawater into Gaza's soil will have long-term devastating consequences on both agricultural lands and drinking water in the besieged Strip with a 2.2 million population, and would probably make most targeted lands uninhabitable.
Read more: 'Israel' targets displaced Gazans in South; 20 killed in one strike
Commenting on the plans last week, the Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said that such a step "will constitute a blatant war crime," pointing out that its real aim is to damage Gaza's natural resources and agricultural capacities.
"War crimes are snowballing - shocking reports have been circulated in recent days that Israel plans to flood underground facilities in the Gaza Strip with seawater," Polyansky said during a UNSC meeting.
"Hailing this ‘brilliant tactical solution,’ the Western-biased mass media don’t even try to think about the potential consequences of pumping thousands of cubic meters of seawater, i.e. salt water, into soil. Obviously, it is a real plan of action to undermine the enclave’s fragile agricultural capacities, because seawater will inevitably contaminate Gaza’s subsoil waters."
Read more: Who is Yahya al-Sinwar, the artist behind Operation Al-Aqsa Flood?
The Israeli inhumane war on Gaza enters its ninth week as the health crisis in the Strip has reached alarming proportions with the toll of the aggression surpassing 18,205 martyrs and 49,645 injured since October 7.
The situation is expected to worsen as a significant number of people remain trapped under debris, while ambulances are barred from reaching the wounded due to depleted fuel reserves.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, revealed earlier that the Israeli occupation had deliberately targeted 137 facilities, rendering 22 hospitals and 46 primary care centers inoperable.
