An unseen tragedy of war

Wars end. Eventually the guns go silent.

But their aftereffects linger for years on the ground, in the air, in the water — the stench, the shortages, the supplies, the must, the dust, the devastation and loss of life, limbs and infrastructure.

War is brutal on nature not only on the ground but under it.

The war in Gaza is far from over. And as Israeli troops continue to pound away at Hamas militants, going door-to-door, striking from the air, they are also considering how best to blow up the infamous insurgent tunnels that snake through the Gaza Strip.

New reporting suggests that Israel Defense Forces may pump seawater into the tunnels to flush out remaining militants, in addition to bombing entrances and exits.

Water may be the last breath of desperation for Palestinians. It is the key lifeline to Gaza, and many fear that an influx of seawater into underground tunnels will only add to the toxic mix of dirty, salty and dwindling supplies of H2O.

Ninety-six percent of the water in Gaza’s only underground aquifer is unfit for human consumption, according to a United Nations’ report, which explains that “three seawater desalination plants that can produce around 7% of Gaza’s clean water needs have been disrupted. Three pipelines from Israel that provide around 13 % of Gaza’s water needs, and a system of 300 wells and bore houses from an aquifer below Gaza is treated by desalination units.”

Israel has begun preparations to flood the tunnels, knowing that the environmental impact could be felt for years.

According to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Israeli experts chronicling the war, the Israeli army last month set up five large water pumps near the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, which can flood the tunnels within weeks by pumping thousands of cubic meters of water per hour into them.

Scientist Elon Adar believes that “if several million cubic meters were pumped into the tunnels, and seeped into the aquifer, “the negative impact on groundwater quality would last for several generations, depending on the amount that infiltrates into the subsurface.” Others worry about the long-term health effects, soil contamination and overall ecology in the region from metal under the ground.

And most concerning is how any remaining hostages would get out of flooded tunnels alive.

Israel says more than 130 hostages remain in Gaza. The hostages were taken during Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, which killed some 1,400 people.

In response to the attacks, Israeli officials continue to insist that they will crush Hamas, using both retaliatory strikes and its ground invasion, which Gaza’s health authority says has killed more than 15,000 people. During the offensive, the Israel Defense Forces said it had uncovered more than 800 tunnel shafts, with about 500 having been destroyed. The use of tunnel flooding, if feasible, could remove the remaining underground network of tunnels, but not without cost.

Aware of the environmental damage of flooding tunnels and careful about further alienating the humanitarian community, Israel could be merely “leaking’” the idea of flooding the tunnels as a means of putting psychological pressure on Hamas as it closes in on some of the terrorist organization’s leaders.

Egypt used the same tunnel flooding tactic against Hamas in 2015, when Hamas was using the underground system to ferry weapons and fighters near Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.

 “Within one month of that year, Egypt flooded parts of the nine-mile border area twice, causing two tunnels to cave in completely and damaging 10 or so more,” a news report found. For many Gaza residents, the result was long-term damage to nearby agricultural lands and a worsening of the salinity of Gaza’s badly damaged aquifer. Some houses literally buckled under the weight of water. Seven years later, the floods could come again — this time at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

With hopes for more pauses in the war almost dead, negotiations over hostages at a standstill and diplomacy out of steam, the action is all military all the time. One hopes all the players know that war can take a lasting toll on people and on the environment long after the guns are laid down. With such intense focus on the ground today, leaders must also keep tomorrow in mind.

Tara D. Sonenshine is the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Public Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.