Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
Israel resumed pumping thousands of cubic metres of Mediterranean seawater into Hamas tunnels in Gaza on Wednesday, sparking concerns that hostages who may be held underground could be at risk.
According to Hamas, 500km of warren-like structures – known as the “Gaza metro” – have been built. Other estimates put the length of the complex at about 250km.
Israeli forces continue to discover more tunnels in continuing operations.
“It is part of a range of tools deployed by the [military] to neutralise the threat of Hamas's subterranean network of tunnels,” an Israeli army spokesman said.
It is not the first time the tunnels have been partly flooded, after an Israeli trial run of the tactic last year. Egypt used the tactic in 2015 to destroy tunnels used for smuggling on its border.
More than 50 years ago, the Vietnam war included a gruesome struggle by the US and allies against tunnel complexes spanning hundreds of kilometres used by Vietcong fighters.
Like Israel has in Gaza, US forces in Vietnam used bombs with delayed fuses that burrowed into earth, creating shock waves to crush the structures. But the tunnels continued to frustrate US offensives.
Efforts involved pumping tunnels with explosive gas and tear gas, flooding them, defoliating areas above ground with carcinogenic herbicides and clearing stretches of jungle.
Specialist volunteers, the Tunnel Rats, were sent alone underground for deadly missions armed with a torch and a pistol.
Today, Israel has Yahalom, a part of its Combat Engineering Corps, the equivalent of the US Army Corps of Engineers who fought in the tunnels in Vietnam. Within Yahalom, Israel has the Samur, or “weasel” soldiers – their own Tunnel Rats.
The US effort in Vietnam took two years, suggesting Israel will not achieve its war aims soon against Hamas tunnels that could be sturdier and deeper underground.
Tunnel warfare, fought in darkness in cramped spaces where even night-vision devices do not work, and the threat of booby traps, minimises advantages for attackers.
Israel has some options unavailable to the US in Vietnam, including armed drones such as the Lanius, which co-ordinates with a ground robot.
But it is not clear whether such systems can cover kilometres of tunnels.
“The largest VC tunnel system by far was in Ben Cat and Phu Hoa districts north of Saigon – no other part of South Vietnam had a tunnel system even remotely as complex. The tunnels of Cu Chi were actually in Phu Hoa district, Binh Duong province,” said Erik Villard, a US army historian of the conflict, referring to tunnels that are now a popular tourist attraction.
“The tunnel system in the Iron Triangle [an infamous Vietcong base area] was … around 15km north to south and about 7km wide. There was another tunnel system in neighbouring Phu Hoa district that was rectangular, about 15km long and 8km wide.”
The US launched two huge military operations to clear these complexes, Operation Crimp and Operation Cedar Falls, the latter being the largest in the war, with 30,000 US and allied troops.
US and Australian soldiers encountered problems faced by Israelis now, finding themselves camped directly above tunnel systems and subject to pop-up attacks where they could take casualties but only had seconds to respond before the enemy disappeared underground.
The tunnels, despite often being crudely built, proved extremely hard to destroy. In Vietnam, the complexes contained provisions and amenities that could sustain forces for months, including medical care, thought to be the case in Gaza today.
“Most of the tunnels were packed earth with some wood reinforcements, occasionally multilevel, but mostly a warren of single level tunnels relatively close to the surface,” Mr Villard said.
“They were largely used to hide local Vietcong guerrillas and Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army command cadres that controlled the area north of Saigon and provide storage for supplies.”
By contrast, Hamas’s tunnels are built with prefabricated concrete.
In Vietnam, US forces eventually removed civilians around one of the largest tunnel complexes, before heavily bombing the area.
Gaza however, is heavily built up and Israeli air strikes have already killed many thousands of civilians.
“The US experimented with other ways of defeating the tunnels, none of which proved to be very effective,” said Mr Villard.
“They tried to use a bedbug system that would sniff out humans and then alert the device operator, but the bugs couldn’t differentiate between friend and enemy.
Tunnel rats were the most effective way of determining the extent of the tunnels and retrieving intel. Combat engineers would then seal the tunnel with explosives
Erik Villard,
historian at the US Army Centre of Military History
“The Mighty Mite system tried to use smoke blowers to flood the tunnels with smoke, but water traps and internal doors prevented the smoke from going very far.
“Tunnel rats were the most effective way of determining the extent of the tunnels and retrieving intel. Combat engineers would then seal the tunnel with explosives, but the best method of destroying them were Arc Light strikes.”
B-52s in Vietnam were able to drop colossal bomb loads on enemy targets, carrying 31 tonnes of bombs each. They often attacked in groups of three, in what was known as Arc Light missions.
In one operation against the Iron Triangle tunnels, 125 B-52 strikes were launched.
“The tunnels in Ben Cat lost much of their importance after Cedar Falls as Rome Plough operations, Arc Light strikes and population relocation turned the area into a wasteland,” said Mr Villard, referring to razor-sharp ploughs on bulldozers used for cutting down jungle.
“The allies never entirely destroyed the tunnel system in Ben Cat and Phu Hoa Districts, but by mid-1968 the US had largely neutralised the value of the tunnels to the enemy by deforesting the area, bombing it with B-52 strikes, locating and blowing up many key tunnels using enemy defectors to point them out, or sometimes finding them with careful searches.”
“It took about two years to neutralise the main threat from the tunnels.”
Hamas holdouts
It remains to be seen whether Israel will spend a similar amount of time in Gaza.
Asked if Hamas could hold out in the tunnels for months, David Hartwell, a security and political-risk analyst focused on the Middle East, said: “It's a tough question because only the Israelis have enough intelligence on their extent and complexity.
“Given how long Hamas has been preparing for this though, nothing would surprise me. It probably also comes down to what we mean by 'neutralise' [the tunnels],” he said, when discussing crushing tunnels or merely sealing them off.
“Take out of action or destroy – there is obviously a difference. I doubt they can destroy them all in the remaining time they’ve got, so it’s more likely to be a case of putting them beyond use and then leaving their long-term destruction to any follow-on non-Hamas administration.
“Lots of ifs and buts though, as the Israelis don’t trust anyone other than themselves to do the job properly. They have to hope they can complete it before [US President Joe] Biden starts turning the screw on de-escalation.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
The specs: 2019 Subaru Forester
Price, base: Dh105,900 (Premium); Dh115,900 (Sport)
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 182hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 239Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.1L / 100km (estimated)
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
What is hepatitis?
Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, which can lead to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer.
There are 5 main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E.
Hepatitis C is mostly transmitted through exposure to infective blood. This can occur through blood transfusions, contaminated injections during medical procedures, and through injecting drugs. Sexual transmission is also possible, but is much less common.
People infected with hepatitis C experience few or no symptoms, meaning they can live with the virus for years without being diagnosed. This delay in treatment can increase the risk of significant liver damage.
There are an estimated 170 million carriers of Hepatitis C around the world.
The virus causes approximately 399,000 fatalities each year worldwide, according to WHO.
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Match info
Manchester City 3 (Jesus 22', 50', Sterling 69')
Everton 1 (Calvert-Lewin 65')
Tell Me Who I Am
Director: Ed Perkins
Stars: Alex and Marcus Lewis
Four stars
