Israel would have installed an extensive system of water pumps that it could use to flood tunnels used by Hamas under the Gaza Strip in order to expel the militants of the Islamist group. This is how the American newspaper advances itThe Wall Street Journal‘, which quotes US officials.

A strategy, according to the aforementioned newspaper, that would destroy the tunnels and would force the combatants to leave from their underground shelters, but also would threaten drinking water supplies and damage infrastructure of the Palestinian enclave.

According to said media, in mid-November the Israeli army completed the installation of at least five pumping systems one mile north of the Shati refugee camp that could move thousands of cubic meters of water per hour, flooding the tunnels in a matter of weeks.

However, it is not clear whether Israel is considering using this system before all the hostages are releasedsince Hamas has indicated that it has captives hidden in “safe places and tunnels.”

When asked by Reuters about the information from ‘The Wall Street Journal’, a US official indicated that it makes sense for Israel will leave the tunnels inoperative and that the country would be exploring various ways to do so.

According to the ‘WSJ’, an Israel Defense Forces officer who declined to comment on the plan to flood the tunnels did indicate that the Israeli army “is operating to dismantle Hamas’ terrorist capabilities in various ways, using different military and technological tools.

Israel would have informed Washington of this option last month, according to the same American newspaper, but the officials cited did not know how close Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government would be to carrying out this plan: always according to the ‘WSJ’, Tel Aviv would not have made a definitive decision about whether to carry it out or discard it.