Tunnel network that empowers Hamas

[Falcon29]

Report: Hamas used child labor in tunnel building

2012 report published by Institute of Palestine Studies alleged 160 children died in construction of tunnels



It highlights another fact that may have been obscured until now – and is increasingly relevant in light of the high number of child deaths reported throughout the skirmish. "At least 160 children have been killed in the [construction of] tunnels," says the report cited by Tablet, "according to Hamas officials."

...

Children can't build sophisticated tunnels like that. Engineers do. Tablet isn't a reliable source, it is a Zionist source. More ever, this is speaking of years ago when tunnels were built along the Egyptian border to smuggle basic goods. Hamas didn't have control over all of them and all of them have been destroyed for more than a year now.

A security source told i24news Friday the Israeli army has foiled a massive attack that would have been carried out during the Jewish New Year this September.

According to the report, thousands of militants were meant to cross over to Israel from Gaza through tunnels to kill and kidnap Israelis. The source added that the army learned of the attack during the interrogations of Hamas prisoners captured during Operation Protective Edge.

What a load of garbage. Israeli clowns have been trying their best to convince people of this. Even though, all cross border retaliatory attacks by Hamas during Israel's offensive on Gaza have all targeted soldiers. Even in one case, Hamas had the opportunity to kill civilians, they choose to target military targets.

Army said no such thing and none of those civilians detained were Hamas members. They were ordinary civilian males. Anyone who believes they would do a thing as stupid as that is a moron or a person filled with hatred willing to spread lies.

Also, it's impossible to do such a thing, that would make sure everyone would get caught and killed.

stupids were busy in making tunnels for war rather then road of peace

Stupid is you. Israel was building settlements, importing billions in weapons to kill more Palestinians, occupying Palestinian territory. Stealing their resources, freezing their assets, collecting their tax revenues, restricting their economy, freedom of movement, etc.... rather than make peace!

 

[Imran Khan]

Stupid is you. Israel was building settlements, importing billions in weapons to kill more Palestinians, occupying Palestinian territory. Stealing their resources, freezing their assets, collecting their tax revenues, restricting their economy, freedom of movement, etc.... rather than make peace!

and Palestinians are busy in ?
fighting each other?
devided apart
given control to jihadis their movement of freedom ?
day after they went down because of own action ?

do you remember days when they were in good condition and can do something for two states but there unrealistic aim of aqsa mosque and dream of throwing israel destroyed them it was good time in 70 80s 90s but you lost it . now you have no space soon you guys will lose gaza

 

[Falcon29]

and Palestinians are busy in ?
fighting each other?
devided apart

Again, you're so misinformed. Try to learn something for once before acting like an expert.
Israel condemns US for backing Palestinian unity government | World news | theguardian.com

given control to jihadis their movement of freedom ?

What are 'jihadis'? Define that for me. And what 'jihadis' are you speaking of?

do you remember days when they were in good condition and can do something for two states but there unrealistic aim of aqsa mosque

Israel has no choice to commit to the peace process. As for 'those days', I'm assuming you're referring to Olso negotiations. First thing you need to know is the Israeli Knesset never approved any of those proposals. Second of all, there was no guarantee any of them would be implemented or even when any would be implemented. It was asking the Palestinians to sign off their cause without any guarantees. Later the right wing elements assassinated their PM through a disguised individual attack by a settler.

This is a general run down before I go into more specifics and bring sources.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Well if there was a Saladin in our modern time , this would not be happening to a Muslim City

This only happens

a) Fall of Ottoman Empire
b) Lack of true Leader who can stand up and stop this

 

[TruthSeeker]

Israeli troops, using sniffer dogs and robots, hunt for Gaza tunnels

BY DAN WILLIAMS, GAZA STRIP, Wed Jul 30, 2014 1:02pm EDT

(Reuters) - Israeli Colonel Tomer was literally tipped off to the tunnel snaking under a Palestinian village when the tank-churned earth gave way under the weight of one of his behemoth bulldozers.

Twenty-four hours later, on Wednesday, his forces cleared a greenhouse that had provided cover and dug a 3 meter-deep (10 foot) crater exposing the concrete-reinforced passage wide enough for a man in battle gear to squeeze through.

It would take several days, the officer told Reuters at the scene - the exact location could not be reported under military rules - to map out the half-dozen suspected access shafts to the tunnel, one of which, he said, was concealed by a Palestinian home.

Then explosives would be dropped in and the network destroyed as part of a tunnel-hunt throughout the Gaza Strip's eastern frontier that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says will be completed, whether or not Israel reaches a ceasefire with the territory's dominant Hamas Islamists.

Tomer's soldiers, a mix of tank crew and army engineers, watched the dark, descending void of the tunnel aperture with assault rifles raised, on guard for any gunmen that might storm out. An electric whizz overhead signaled a Palestinian sniper shot gone wide; Israeli tank machine-guns chattered back.

"We don’t put men in the tunnels. There is too much risk of booby traps," Tomer, who under military rules can be identified only by his first name, told a Reuters correspondent invited by the army to view his force's operations.

Instead, he said, the army sends in sniffer dogs and robots that relay back video images through which the layout can be learned.

So guided, an earth-mover digs into the next stretch, where the process is repeated, to continue until the entire 1.5 km (one mile) stretch to the Gaza-Israel border is covered.

Were the troops to track the tunnel in the other direction they would end up 2 km (1.2 miles) deeper in Gaza, in the middle of a bustling neighborhood, Tomer said. But that route, on the other side of the crater, was blocked with sand.

"We don’t want to go there. What concerns us is the stretch headed toward Israel," he said.

PERSONAL MISSION

The hunt is personal for Tomer, who lost one of his officers and a conscript in a July 19 clash with Hamas gunmen who had tunneled into Israel. The military said one of the infiltrators was killed and the rest of the group escaped back into Gaza.

About 32 tunnels, some as deep as 25 meters (82 feet), and dozens of access shafts have been uncovered since ground forces moved into Gaza following an air and naval barrage launched on July 8, the military said.

Several troops have been wounded by booby-trap bombs at tunnel apertures, and a dog sent down to probe a passage in the southern Gaza Strip never returned.

Israel says the tunnel search is vital to fending off infiltrations in which their southern villages and army bases might be raided by gunmen.

Lieutenant-Colonel Roi, one of Tomer’s battalion commanders, said several armored vehicles – tanks, troop transports, D9 bulldozers and earth-movers, some with code names like "Bella" or "Cruella" – accompany each tunnel hunt, both for the heavy lifting and to provide a wall of steel around the foot-soldiers involved.

Hamas and its Palestinian guerrilla allies regard the tunnels as strategic assets against their militarily superior enemy. Each one of the secret passages cost $500,000 to $2 million to build, with each kilometer (0.6 mile) stretch taking about a year to complete, according to Israeli estimates.

Tomer's unit, the 188th Armoured Brigade, has found two tunnels and several access shafts so far. He said the searches were based initially on rough coordinates given following surveillance of suspected digs and other intelligence.

Realizing the extent of the tunnel warren, and the lethal threat they pose, has set off recriminations in the government and military, which warned about the phenomenon years ago but apparently did not prepare adequate counter-measures.

Yossi Langotsky, a geologist and retired army colonel who formerly advised the Defence Ministry, said his calls to develop a seismic technology to "hear" tunnel digs had been ignored.

A current Defence Ministry official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Israel was close to deploying a tunnel detection technology. But were that to be used on the Israeli side of the border, it would still leave Palestinians free to carry out most of the dig under the frontier. Some Israeli officials have proposed that the military set up a long-term buffer zone inside Gaza.

Israeli troops, using sniffer dogs and robots, hunt for Gaza tunnels| Reuters

 

[TruthSeeker]

Israel calls up 16,000 reservists as Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas tunnels 'with or without a cease-fire'
Published July 31, 2014


Israel's military announced Thursday that it had called up 16,000 reservists as the country's Prime Minister vowed to destroy tunnels used by the Islamic militant group Hamas to attack soldiers and civilians inside Israel.

"We have neutralized dozens of terror tunnels and we are committed to complete this mission, with or without a cease-fire," Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday. "Therefore I will not agree to any offer that does not allow the military to complete this important mission for the security of the people of Israel."

Israel said that most of the 32 tunnels it has uncovered have now been demolished and that getting rid of the remainder will take no more than a few days.

The latest call-up brings the total number of reserve troops called up by Israel to 86,000.

An Israeli defense official -- speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to discuss the matter with media -- told the Associated Press that the purpose of the latest call-up was to provide relief for troops currently on the Gaza firing line. However, Israeli officials have also said they do not rule out broadening operations in the coming days.

The Associated Press also reported that Egyptian officials met Thursday with an Israeli envoy about Israel's conditions for a cease-fire, including disarming Hamas, according to a high-ranking Egyptian security official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss the delicate diplomatic efforts.

The Times of Israel reported that Egypt is refusing to host a Palestinian delegation unless Hamas ceases fire. For its part, Hamas has said it will only halt fire once it receives guarantees that a seven-year-old Gaza border blockade by Israel and Egypt will be lifted. Meanwhile, The Times of Israel reported that Israeli's Security Cabinet met Wednesday and approved ongoing strikes against Hamas.

Israeli strikes in the strip continued Thursday, with witnesses saying that munitions hit the Omar Ibn al-Khatab mosque next to a U.N. school in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

The strike in Beit Lahiya early Thursday damaged water tanks on the roof of a building near the mosque, sending shrapnel flying into the adjacent school compound, where dozens of Palestinians displaced by the fighting had taken shelter.

"The shrapnel from the strike on the mosque hit people who were in the street and at the entrance of the school," said Sami Salebi, an area resident.

Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 15 people were wounded, with three of them in critical condition.

Kifah Rafati, 40, was being treated for shrapnel injuries at the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital. She said she and her six children had been sleeping in a classroom facing the mosque when the explosion went off. "There is no safety anywhere," she added.

Israel's military said it would investigate whether tank shells struck a United Nations-run school in a Gaza refugee camp Wednesday in an event that drew condemnation from the U.S. and the U.N.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC that Israel would issue an apology if it determined that fire from its troops struck the school.

"We have a policy; we don't target civilians," Regev said. "It's not clear to us that it was our fire, but we know for a fact there was hostile fire on our people from the vicinity of the school."

Pierre Kraehenbuehl, chief of the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees, told the Associated Press that Israel must try harder to ensure that civilians are not hurt, especially in Gaza, where 1.7 million people are squeezed into a small coastal territory. His agency has opened 80 of its schools to more than 200,000 Palestinians fleeing the violence.

"What maybe the world forgets ... is that the people of Gaza have nowhere to go," he said. "So when the fighting starts and they move, it is not as if they can cross a border to somewhere."

Israel has accused Hamas of using residents of Gaza as human shields by launching rockets from the territory's most densely populated cities.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, using somewhat less diplomatic language that Kraehenbuehl, called the school shelling "outrageous" and "unjustifiable," and demanded an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, adding, "Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children."

Gaza health authorities say at least 16 people were killed in the school attack and 1,360 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the offensive, though it is unclear how many were civilians and how many were Hamas militants. 56 Israeli soldiers have died since the start of the offensive, as well as two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker.

On Wednesday, White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters the Obama administration expected a "full, prompt, and thorough investigation" into the shelling, but stopped short of directly blaming Israel.

"We are extremely concerned that the thousands of internally displaced Palestinians, who have been called on by the Israeli military to evacuate their homes, are not safe in these UN-designated shelters in Gaza," Schultz told reporters. "We also condemn those responsible for hiding weapons in the United Nations facilities in Gaza. All of these actions violate the international understanding of the UN’s neutrality."

At the State Department, spokeswoman Marie Harf described a purported leaked transcript of a weekend call between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "complete crap," claiming that the intention of the leak to hurt the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

"I don't know toward what end. I don't know who did it," she said. "But I don't know what other conclusion you can draw from that." Both the U.S. and Israeli government deny the authenticity of the transcript, which came amid stinging reports in some Israeli media outlets accusing Kerry of aligning himself too closely to Hamas and being dismissive of Israeli complaints.

Israel calls up 16,000 reservists as Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas tunnels 'with or without a cease-fire' | Fox News

 

[Voltaire]

I wonder how much these tunnels are worth..destroying them could set hamas back by half a decade even.

 

[OrionHunter]

How long would it take to destroy Hamas tunnels?

 

[TruthSeeker]

Israeli troops, with dogs and robots, track Gaza tunnels
BY DAN WILLIAMS

GAZA STRIP Wed Jul 30, 2014 7:05pm EDT

(Reuters) - Israeli Colonel Tomer was literally tipped off to the tunnel snaking under a Palestinian village when the tank-churned earth gave way to the weight of one of his behemoth bulldozers' treads.

Twenty-four hours later, on Wednesday, his forces had cleared a greenhouse that had provided cover and dug a three-metre-deep (10 foot) crater exposing the concrete-reinforced passage wide enough for a man in battle gear to squeeze through.

It would take several days, the officer told Reuters at the scene - the exact location could not be reported under military rules - to map out the half-dozen suspected access shafts to the tunnel, one of which, he said, was concealed by a nearby home.

Then explosives would be dropped in and the network destroyed as part of a tunnel-hunt throughout the Gaza Strip's eastern frontier that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says will be completed, whether or not Israel reaches a ceasefire with Gaza's Hamas Islamists.

Tomer's soldiers, a mix of tank crewmen and army engineers, watched the dark, descending void of the tunnel aperture with assault rifles raised, on guard for any gunmen that might storm out. An electric whiz overhead signalled a Palestinian sniper shot gone wide; Israeli tank machine-guns chattered back.

At a different location, in southern Gaza, three Israeli soldiers died on Wednesday when a booby-trapped tunnel shaft they had uncovered blew up, the army said. Referring to such casualties, Tomer said his forces were keeping a safer distance.

"We don’t put men in the tunnels. There is too much risk of booby traps," Tomer, who under military rules could be identified only by his first name, told a Reuters correspondent invited by the army to view his force's operations.

Instead, he said, the army sends in dogs to sniff out explosives and robots that relay back video images through which the layout can be learned.

So guided, an earth-mover digs into the next stretch, where the process is repeated, to continue until the entire 1.5 km (one mile) stretch to the Gaza-Israel border is covered.

Were the troops to track the tunnel in the other direction they would end up 2 km (1.2 miles) deeper in Gaza, in the middle of a bustling neighbourhood, Tomer said. But that route, on the opposite side of the crater, was blocked with sand.

"We don’t want to go there. What concerns us is the stretch headed toward Israel," he said.



PERSONAL MISSION

The hunt is personal for Tomer, who lost one of his officers and a conscript in a July 19 clash with Hamas gunmen who had tunnelled into Israel. The military said one of the infiltrators was killed and the rest of the group escaped back into Gaza.

About 32 tunnels, some as deep as 25 metres (82 feet), and dozens of access shafts have been uncovered since Israeli ground forces moved into Gaza following an air and naval barrage launched on July 8, the military said.

It said dozens of Palestinian gunmen have been killed or captured in clashes at tunnel entrances. In addition to the Israeli casualties in such incidents, a dog sent down to probe a one passage in southern Gaza never returned.

Israel sees the tunnel search as vital to fending off infiltrations in which its southern villages and army bases might be raided by gunmen.

Lieutenant-Colonel Roi, one of Tomer’s battalion commanders, said several armoured vehicles - tanks, troop transports, D9 bulldozers and earth-movers, some with code names like "Bella" or "Cruella" - accompany each tunnel hunt, both for the heavy lifting and to provide a wall of steel around the foot-soldiers involved.

Hamas and its Palestinian guerrilla allies regard the tunnels as strategic assets against their militarily superior enemy. Each one of the secret passages costs $500,000 to $2 million to build, with each kilometre (0.6 mile) stretch taking about a year to complete, according to Israeli estimates.

Tomer's unit, the 188th Armoured Brigade, has found two tunnels and several access shafts so far. He said the searches were based initially on rough coordinates given following surveillance of suspected digs and other intelligence.

As the extent of the tunnel warren and the lethal threat it poses became known, accusations were leveled against the government and military, which warned about the phenomenon years ago but apparently did not prepare adequate counter-measures.

Yossi Langotsky, a geologist and retired army colonel who formerly advised the Defence Ministry, said his calls to develop a seismic technology to "hear" tunnel digs had been ignored.

A current Defence Ministry official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Israel was close to deploying a tunnel-detection technology. But were that to be used on the Israeli side of the border, it would still leave Palestinians free to carry out most of the dig under the frontier. Some Israeli officials have proposed that the military set up a long-term buffer zone inside Gaza.

Israeli troops, with dogs and robots, track Gaza tunnels| Reuters

 

[he-man]

Looking at this,,,if israel does nothing it will be destroyed by hamas eventually.
Its a battle of survival for them

 

[Pakistani shaheens]

Could Israeli high-tech tackle Hamas’ terror tunnels?
By James Rogers

Published July 25, 2014

Israel Defense Forces

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system has been highly visible protecting its airspace during Operation Protective Edge. But exactly how the military is locating Hamas’ labyrinth of underground tunnels between Israel and Gaza – and whether it is using new technologies to uncover them – remains a closely held secret.

“Due to security concerns, we cannot specify the tools or methods used to uncover these tunnels. Exposing our capabilities would hamper our ability to address this lethal threat,” an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokeswoman said in an email toFoxNews.com. “However, using precise intelligence combined with specialized units which use robots and advanced cameras, the IDF has had vast success in toppling the Hamas tunnel network.”

The scale and sophistication of the Hamas tunnels present a massive challenge to the IDF, which launched Operation Protective Edge on July 8 in response to an escalation in rocket attacks by Hamas. The ground phase began on July 17.

The tunnel network has been likened to a subway system. Often built with concrete blocks, the tunnels, which are used to transport Hamas fighters, for smuggling and for storing weapons, extend more than 60 feet below ground, according to news reports. A declassified aerial image provided to FoxNews.com by the IDF shows a concealed entrance to a tunnel located between a mosque and a school in a Gaza neighborhood.

As Israel continues its destruction of the tunnels, there has been considerable speculation in the Israeli media about what technologies it may be using to locate them, and about what improved detection systems may be on the horizon.

On Wednesday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that a number of systems are at various stages of development and testing, including an estimated $59 million sensor-based system developed by graduates of the IDF’s elite Talpiot technology program.

It isn’t clear, though, whether testing has been completed on the project, according to Haaretz, which said that tunnels are typically detected by listening for sounds of digging.

Israeli science and technology experts are touting a number of other techniques for locating the tunnels, as well. Assaf Klar and Raphael Linker, associate professors at Israel’s prestigious Technion science and technology university, told FoxNews.comthey have been working for eight years to develop a fiber optic-based detection system.

In an email, Klar explained that the system uses a fiber optic cable, buried at shallow depth, that is connected to an optical analyzer. The fiber optics can sense displacements of soil, and advanced signal processing can be used to identify and pinpoint tunnels.

“The system is capable of analyzing, continuously, [using] tens of kilometers of conventional telecommunication optical fiber,” wrote Klar, noting that the fiber costs just a few dollars per meter.

Klar and Linker’s system uses a technique called Brillouin scattering, whereby a pulse of light is used to identify areas where the fiber optic cable is under strain. “The tunneling-induced soil movements affect this strain profile, and hence can be evaluated,” Klar wrote.

The security company Magna BSP says that it, too, has a technology can tackle the tunnels. In an interview with the Israeli business news website Globes on Monday, Magna BSP CEO Haim Siboni said the firm’s above-ground radar detection technology, which is already used on the border between Israel and Egypt, could be used to locate tunnels.

“We're proposing an operative engineering solution that consists of digging a 70-km tunnel along the border. When it's completed, our underground radar can be installed fairly easily. The estimated cost of the sensors is $150,000 per kilometer,” Siboni told Globes.

The Israeli defense company Elbit Systems, which is also reportedly involved in the development of tunnel-detection technology, declined to comment.

Regardless of exactly how they’re locating the tunnels, the Israeli military is claiming success.

“Since the beginning of the ground phase of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF has uncovered over 31 terror tunnels as part of a vast and complex tunnel network planned by Hamas over the years,” the IDF spokeswoman said. “It is evident that Gaza is constructed upon a fully developed underground terror city which the IDF is at the peak of its unveiling and decommissioning.”

Early Thursday, the IDF tweeted that the tunnels had over 60 access points across Gaza.

Google News

Hamas has right to protect its self and to get food supply from foreign countries through these tunnels because Israel has ceased and blocked all Hamas.
The facts is, the biggest terrorists is Israel and USA (which is supporting Israel in its war crimes) because in ongoing war it has killed more than 2000 Palestinians and most of them were little kids. And on other side only 4 Israeli soldiers were killed.
Israel is just making excuses to capture and to kill all Muslims from Palestine. It is seeking excuses of terrorists by dropping its countless bombs and rockets on Palestine.

Report: Hamas used child labor in tunnel building

2012 report published by Institute of Palestine Studies alleged 160 children died in construction of tunnels

As the extensive ground phase of Operation Protective Edge exposed the massive tunnel system dug by Hamas underneath Gaza and into Israel, Tablet Magazine on Friday cited a 2012 report detailing the workings and construction process of the vast subterranean infrastructure. The "Tunnel Phenomenon" of the report's title is well-documented and known despite having been virtually ignored in the public eye in Israel, until the tunnels were utilized in several infiltration attempts by Hamas militants, all of whom were killed by Israeli military patrols.

The report published by the Institute for Palestine Studies was authored by Nicolas Pelham – a well-known Middle East analyst who wrote for The Economist and The New York Review of Books, among others.

It highlights another fact that may have been obscured until now – and is increasingly relevant in light of the high number of child deaths reported throughout the skirmish. "At least 160 children have been killed in the [construction of] tunnels," says the report cited by Tablet, "according to Hamas officials."

The report explains that Hamas made use of child laborers in the construction process, which the author compares to the exploitation of children in the Victorian coal mines: their small stature was "prized" in the narrow shafts. According to the report, human right groups "raised concerns" regarding "child labor in the tunnels" as early as 2008.

A security source told i24news Friday the Israeli army has foiled a massive terrorist attack that would have been carried out during the Jewish New Year this September.

According to the report, thousands of terrorists were meant to cross over to Israel from Gaza through tunnels to kill and kidnap Israelis. The source added that the army learned of the attack during the interrogations of Hamas prisoners captured during Operation Protective Edge.

Report: Hamas used child labor in tunnel building | i24news - See beyond

Please sir also mention that how many little kids did Israel killed?

These were innocent lives that Israeli terrorist army, took

 

[Pakistani shaheens]

I wonder how much these tunnels are worth..destroying them could set hamas back by half a decade even.

Tunnels don't worth much than the value of thousands of innocent lives that Israel took

 

[TruthSeeker]

Analysis of cross-borehole pulse radar signatures measured at various tunnel angles cross-borehole radar, pulse radar, tunnel detection

Sang-Wook Kim1 and Se-Yun Kim2,,ksy@imrc.kist.re.kr

A pulse radar system has been developed recently to detect dormant underground tunnels that are deeply located at depths of hundreds of metres. To check the ability of the radar system to detect an obliquely oriented tunnel, five different borehole pairs in the tunnel test site were chosen so that the horizontal lines-of-sight cut the tunnel axis obliquely, in 15° steps. The pulse radar signatures were measured over a depth range of 20 m around the centre of the air-filled tunnel. Three canonical parameters, consisting of the arrival time, attenuation, and dispersion time were extracted from the first and second peaks of the measured radar signatures. Using those parameters, the radar system can detect obliquely oriented tunnels at various angles up to 45° from the transmitter-receiver line of sight.


Feasibility study of automated detection of tunnel excavation by Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry

• 
  
  
  • Assaf Klara, , ,
  • Raphael Linkerb,

Abstract
Cross-borders smuggling tunnels enable unmonitored movement of people, drugs and weapons and pose a very serious threat to homeland security. Recent advances in strain measurements using optical fibers allow the development of smart underground security fences that could detect the excavation of smuggling tunnels. This paper presents the first stages in the development of such a fence using Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry (BOTDR). Two fiber optic layouts are considered and evaluated in a feasibility study that includes evaluation of false detection and sensitivity: (1) horizontally laid fiber buried at a shallow depth, and (2) fibers embedded in vertical mini-piles. In the simulation study, two different ground displacement models are used in order to evaluate the robustness of the system against imperfect modeling. In both cases, soil–fiber and soil-structure interactions are considered. Measurement errors, and surface disturbances (obtained from a field test) are also included in the calibration and validation stages of the system. The proposed detection system is based on wavelet decomposition of the BOTDR signal, followed by a neural network that is trained to recognize the tunnel signature in the wavelet coefficients. The results indicate that the proposed system is capable of detecting even small tunnel (0.5 m diameter) as deep as 20 m (under the horizontal fiber) or as far as 10 m aside from the mini-pile (vertical fiber), if the volume loss is greater than 0.5%.

Feasibility study of automated detection of tunnel excavation by Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry

full paper:

http://gwri-ic.technion.ac.il/pdf/Professors/Assaf_Klar/8.pdf


US intelligence source claims Hamas has many more tunnels than Israel says

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON

LAST UPDATED: 07/22/2014 09:44

American satellites have preliminary findings of around 60 tunnels on the Israel-Gaza border, according to senior official; number could actually be higher.

As Israeli security forces thwarted the latest attempt by terrorists to infiltrate Israel via tunnels from Gaza on Monday,The Jerusalem Post has learned that Israel may be underestimating the extent of tunnel penetration on its southern border.


Steven Emerson, founder and executive director of the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism, told thePost in an exclusive interview on Sunday that US intelligence officials believe that Israel is underestimating the number of tunnels.

He said that according to a senior National Security Council official dealing with the Middle East, American satellites – equipped with special high resolution infrared detection technology – have preliminary findings of around 60 tunnels on the Israel-Gaza border.

This number could actually be higher though because it does not include overhead satellite coverage of ground structures that are several stories in height and are impervious to infrared detection, Emerson said.
This information seems to contradict Israeli estimates of remaining tunnels, Emerson said.

The IDF told the Post on Monday that up until now 45 tunnels have been discovered, but when asked how many it estimated remain, it said that no information was available.

Emerson said that the advanced American satellite, which was originally developed to deal with the Iranian theater, had been directed to orbit over Israel and send the data to specialized reconnaissance agencies operating under the aegis of the National Security Agency (NSA) for analysis.

The infrared heat-seeking technology works by detecting changes in terrain density and the preliminary findings show that the tunnels are 1.5 m. by 1.2 m. and at least 46 m. in length.

Emerson said that he is unaware if Israel requested such intelligence from the Americans or if it has yet been shared between the two nations – though he presumes that if it hadn’t it will be.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the threat of the tunnels is not a new one and Israel is aware of them. “It is an operation with more risk, but it is vital. If these tunnels were not found, then the results would have been a lot worse,” Netanyahu said of the ground operations in Gaza.

Emerson said that “according to American experts, there are only a couple of very specialized international corporations that manufacture tunnel-based equipment that detect unusual gaps in the density of hard rock being measured.”

The technology also has commercial uses and assists in determining areas suitable for tunnels and mines.
Emerson speculated that Israel did not purchase this equipment because of its high cost – and due to its belief that Israel can find and deal with the tunnels without it. He said that an ex-Israeli intelligence official who he spoke to came across as arrogant when speaking of the tunnel threat, and had a “we can deal with it,” attitude.

“It is believed that the construction of the more advanced Palestinian tunnels began right after the 2012 cease-fire agreement, when Israel agreed to lift restrictions for humanitarian aid, including large quantities of steel and concrete,” he said, adding that the agreement to lift the blockade was overseen by Hillary Clinton.
Egyptian tunnels are easier to build and are dug by using traditional excavation equipment and are meant mainly for commerce. These are easier to see, he said, adding that the ones crossing into Israel are for military purposes and “are of a totally different magnitude.”

Emerson said that Hamas has learned from Hezbollah how to improve its use of tunnels. He also said that Hamas terrorists are probably not using any communication devices while inside the tunnels, making it harder to detect them.

In addition, the tunnels are quite sophisticated, with water, sewage, and lighting allowing for month longs stays.

Regarding Israel’s efforts at using conventional forces, such as tanks and troop carriers, Emerson said that these are easier targets for Hamas since they can gather intelligence on them from close up.

Hamas has been very good at adapting and Israelis “need to think outside the box as they traditionally have and use their ability to think two steps ahead of their enemies,” Emerson said.

Exclusive: US intelligence source claims Hamas has many more tunnels than Israel says | JPost | Israel News