By Worthy News’ George Whitten and Stefan J. Bos
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Worthy News) – Israel confirmed Tuesday it has begun pumping large volumes of seawater into “Hamas terrorist tunnels,” defying U.S. and experts’ warnings that it may endanger hostages while threatening clean water supplies in the Gaza Strip.
In remarks monitored by Worthy News, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they “implemented new capabilities during the war, with the aim of neutralizing underground terrorist infrastructure.” These measures include “channeling large volumes of water into them,” the Israeli military added.
“This is a significant tool in combating the threat of Hamas’ underground terrorist infrastructure. This is part of a range of tools deployed by the IDF to neutralize the threat of Hamas’ subterranean network of tunnels,” the IDF stressed.
Television footage showed apparent seawater being pumped into a Hamas tunnel.
U.S. officials have expressed concerns over the strategy, warning that it could endanger the lives of the more than 100 hostages, including Americans, still held by Hamas.
It was not clear Tuesday whether any of the hostages were still in the tunnels.
Experts have also warned about the possible effects of pumping seawater underground on Gaza’s limited fresh water supply. They also claim it could pollute the soil with hazardous materials from Hamas’ weapons hidden in the tunnels.
OPERATION ATLANTIS
However, the IDF countered that its so-called “Operation Atlantis” is “Only carried out in tunnel routes and locations that are suitable.”
The military said it even found underground tunnels in the vicinity of hospitals and located weapons and vehicles there used in Hamas’ October 7 attack against Israel that killed some 1,200 people while nearly 250 Israelis and others were kidnapped.
The announcement came after U.S. reports that Operation Atlantis was “only a partial success.”
While tunnels were flooded, battles raged above ground. Israeli media quoted IDF sources as claiming “about 100 terrorists” were killed Tuesday in an Israeli “day-long raid” around Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.
As fighting escalated, a “Hamas anti-tank squad” was identified in the area and attacked from the air, IDF sources said. It wasn’t clear Tuesday how many people had been killed or injured in the reported Israeli air strike.
Israel’s military was also carrying raids in southern neighborhoods of Gaza City, and those operations were expected to continue, the IDF said.
In one raid, Israeli forces said they detained “three terrorists” Monday behind the door of a strategic tunnel in the city of Khan Younis during an operation by an elite unit there.
SHIN BET
The unidentified suspects were transferred to the Israel domestic security services Shin Bet for questioning, and the investigation of the tunnel continues, Israeli sources said.
However, the IDF denied reports that its forces stormed al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis or that it ordered people inside to evacuate at gunpoint.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Tuesday claimed Israeli forces had demanded displaced people and its teams evacuate the building “under the threat of arms.”
The PRCS said a woman was killed and nine others injured by shrapnel from Israeli tank fire near al-Amal hospital and its headquarters.
Israeli tanks were reportedly stationed in the front yard of the hospital, and Palestinian sources said “they fired live ammunition and smoke grenades at displaced individuals and its staff.” Israel’s military has denied deliberately targeting civilians but accuses Hamas of using them as human shields.
The battles also spread from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, the other Palestinian enclave, where Israeli forces disguised as civilian women and medical workers stormed a hospital Tuesday, killing suspected Palestinian terrorists,
Israeli officials said.
Israel said troops killed Mohammed Jalamneh, 27, who it claimed was planning an “imminent attack.”
BROTHERS KILLED
The two other men killed, brothers Basel and Mohammed Ghazawi, were hiding inside the hospital and were involved in attacks, the Israeli military added.
Since October 7, violence in the West Bank has also surged as Israel has cracked down on what it says are terrorists.
More than 380 Palestinians were killed in recent months, said the Palestinian Health Ministry, without explaining whether the dead were fighters targeting Israel.
Back in Gaza, a total of 26,751 Palestinians have now been killed and 65,636 wounded by Israeli military action in Gaza since October 7, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Tuesday.
The figures, difficult to verify independently, reportedly include 114 Palestinians killed and 249 injured in the past 24 hours.
Israel claims it has killed about 9,000 enemy combatants while losing 221 of its forces in the ground campaign inside Gaza.
Despite the rising death toll, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Tuesday he would not accept any ceasefire deal that requires the departure of Israeli troops from Gaza or the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners as Hamas suggested.
Israel also struck back at another front, in Lebanon, from where the Hezbollah group has attacked the Jewish nation in “solidarity” with Hamas. Hezbollah said Monday that two of its fighters were killed after claiming 13 separate attacks against Israeli army positions amid the ongoing daily exchange of fire across the Lebanon-Israel border.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Israel carried out an unusual airstrike deep inside northwestern Syria early Tuesday, targeting the strategic Abu al-Duhur military airfield shortly after a Turkish military delegation reportedly visited the base to assess its rehabilitation, according to Israeli and Syrian reports. The operation prompted a rare public rebuke from a senior U.S. envoy.
Newly declassified FBI records released by the White House detail what officials describe as a years-long Chinese intelligence effort to penetrate American political circles through sexual relationships, campaign donations, and strategically placed interns.
President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is considering a significant overhaul of its Gaza disarmament framework after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a plan that would have linked Hamas weapons handovers to phased Israeli troop withdrawals, according to an exclusive report by The Times of Israel.
Iran’s rulers were quietly preparing for a broader and potentially prolonged Middle East war even as Tehran publicly engaged in diplomatic efforts with the United States, according to an exclusive investigation by The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced Sunday that he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” military exercises with key regional ally South Korea, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul’s refusal to assist Washington in its confrontation with Iran.
Rescue teams in eastern Indonesia recovered six more bodies Sunday following a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake, raising the death toll to at least 53 as Christians prayed for victims and rescuers struggled to reach isolated communities.
The U.S. Department of Defense is introducing a course centered on Christianity and Western civilization this fall in the schools it operates for military families, while casting Islam as a threat to both.