Israel Border Security Threats: Soil Tunnels

Abstract

Soil tunnels, on the Israeli borders with Gaza, Egypt, West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon have a long history of use for warfare, as invasion pathways, smuggling, and storage of rockets, missiles and ordnance and are causes of serious political tension between the countries. The primary objectives are to: 1) assess the soil and geological materials, climate, bedrock, permanent water table and flooding conditions that exist on the Israel border to determine where earthen soil tunnels could be successfully created, 2) assess the use by Hamas of soil tunnels during the October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, 3) document the new Israel Defense Force (IDF) understandings, culture, and approach to categorizing, blocking, and destroying the Gaza tunnels, and 4) apply IDF lessons learned on the Israel-Gaza border to southern Lebanon-Israel border where Hezbollah has built a vast soil tunnel network. Soil tunnel construction and destruction often has adverse environmental and human health impacts on the Israeli border landscape.