IDF International spokesman says ‘Hamas will be dismantled,’ ‘tunnels will be Hamas graves’

IDF International Spokesman Lt-Col. Jonathan Conricus, in an interview with The Media Line on Thursday, discussed the current war in Gaza against the Hamas terror group, including attempts to rescue the hostages, and reports of the IDF flooding the terror tunnels. 

Conricus said the war “is going to be a long and difficult fight,” in comments that echoed those of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. 

The spokesman said that while the fight to dismantle Hamas “will take a lot of time and a lot of effort,” the IDF’s “resolve is very clear, and we are going to defeat Hamas. There is no other option.” 

During the interview, Conricus was asked about reports of the IDF flooding the tunnels in Gaza. 

Photos released in Israeli news media on Friday morning showed IDF pumping stations at the shore of the Mediterranean Sea pumping seawater into tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip. 

Conricus didn’t directly state whether the IDF had officially begun flooding of the tunnels in his interview, however, he did say that “these tunnels will hopefully be the undoing of Hamas.” 

According to reports in U.S. news media, Israeli officials told the U.S. Biden administration that the IDF is testing out the process on tunnels where no hostages are believed to be held. 

He also spoke of the complexity of the tunnel system, noting that the IDF has uncovered “hundreds of miles of tunnels, hundreds, almost a thousand, tunnel shafts.” 

“Some of them are very high-tech and high-level and a high finish of infrastructure,” Conricus said. “And we find house after house full of weapons, IEDs, explosives, rocket launchers and anything that Hamas could get their hands on.” 

The IDF spokesman tole The Media Line it is clear that “Hamas has prioritized their military capabilities over everything else.” 

“They definitely have not been developing Gaza, caring for civilians, building civilian infrastructure, schools and hospitals and mosques and roads and clinics,” Conricus stated regarding Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip.

“No. It has been in furnishing themselves with tunnels and buying and smuggling weapons so that they can go on their continued jihad against Israel.” 

Regarding the Israeli and foreign hostages remaining in captivity in Gaza, Conricus stated that the IDF is “going to spare no efforts in getting our hostages back, even if it means to conduct tactical operations which will put soldiers at risk.” 

He called the attempts to rescue the hostages “a tremendous challenge” and said it is part of the consideration in the IDF’s planning on dismantling the tunnel system. 

“We want to turn the tunnels from an asset that Hamas has really to a liability and eventually to their graves,” Conricus added.

Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, speaking from Lebanon, said the reports of flooding tunnels in Gaza is not a concern. 

“The tunnels were built by well-trained and educated engineers who considered all possible attacks from the occupation, including pumping water,” Hamdan said, adding that tunnels “are an integral part of the resistance, and all consequences and expected attacks have been taken into account.”