Israeli propaganda inadvertently reveals stunning Gaza tunnels, with Jon Elmer and Ali Abunimah

so so this is again this is the Israelis releasing captured footage um that they got from Kasam so this is a Kasam engineering unit this is showing you a tunnel that the Israelis can't show you because they've never found one um but they C they captured this so you just see a tractor just driving into this tunnel um um and and what we're watching here is the construction of a tunnel that's 50 m deep and according to the Israelis 4 kilm long but that's only because that's what they' found you can see here this Kasam engineer opening this door look at how sealed that door is when we talk about flooding the tunnels it's completely the conrete is completely sealed he can't he has to kick the door to get it open it's so heavy and it's hermetically sealed and so the part part of the reason why they use these doors is actually for the structure of the tunnel because it protects against blast waves and then we see here I'm not sure what but but this is to me it seems like a clue that there's drainage capacity um in in that section um clearly that door um is waterproof um and then we see some of the tools that are used to dig and they use these tools um that are not that are not they don't use large tools that would make noise because one of the ways the only way the Israelis know about them is to do sort of like um almost like seismic readings right to see to see if there's any kind of activity um you see this massive train apparatus with fuel um this is obviously a branch from the tunnel they have multiple doors that they can seal and each one of these doors were the Israelis to go down there they have to breach these doors so they have to carry explosives um and each of those doors can be booby trapped and if we look and see at the end of this tunnel as they're digging it here in in the followon video so again this is Kasam video that they're using for themselves in the engineering of this tunnel that's been captured by the Israelis and then the Israelis are showing it to us the Israelis don't necessarily know where this tunnel is they captured the video not the tunnel so they so so they do capture the tunnel um and that's in this next clip here so they they got this video and they clearly from the video attempted to find where the tunnel is and you can see them up here near Aras and you can see that tunnel that's what we saw from the other side but that's do we know that that's the same tunnel as in the video they captured yeah so this is the same tunnel and they can't get into it because they haven't found the entrance look it that's them sawing through it because they can't find the entrance um to the tunnel so they but see how it's the same they're they're literally cutting into it because they don't know where uh the tunnel entrance is and then um and so now they've dug it out and now they're showing it um and Kasam like they couldn't even find the entrance I I can't even stress how uh far removed from combating the tunnel apparatus that this is well this certainly shows the the the captured video shows the scale of these tunnels and presumably that's only a small part and I can say I've mentioned this before when I was in Gaza 10 years ago and visited the commercial tunnels or the so-called smuggling tunnels that were between Gaza and Rafa from rafah and Gaza to Egypt so these were not military tunnels I haven't been in any of Cam's tunnel Network work nobody nobody has just some Israelis sorry right just some Israelis just some Israelis but what I saw was also on a vast scale uh and those were the commercial tunnels I talked about how we went down on this electric platform that lowered us down and it was a platform that was large enough to park two cars side by side and then going off from the bottom of that shaft which was very deep below the ground you had tunnels going off horizontal L that you could drive a car through you could just drive a car through so what I'm saying is what I saw with my own eyes was already on a huge scale and so I'm entirely capable of imagining that you have B just based on this video and the scale of that infrastructure that you have an underground city on a massive scale yeah so on the scale question there the Israeli say that this is a 4 kilometer tunnel that they found and they believe there's 500 kilometers of tunnel so this what we're seeing this incredible feat of engineering represents 0.8% of what uh Kasam has and this tunnel is in is near Aras in the north so it's presumably an attack tunnel that was created in such a way that Vehicles can Traverse it and then end up inside Israel um and so here's another video that they this is this is Yahya sinar's brother Muhammad senoir who led the operation to captured galad Shalit which freed a thousand prisoners plus his brother but this is just them this is footage from their car that the Israelis captured look he's telling him which direction to go in the tunnel he's driving his car into the tunnel and at the beginning it looked like he was going like 40 kilm an hour like they're not crawling he's driving into the tunnel um and so the Israelis are showing this and presumably this is just um like building video that like they're going on a tour uh they're checking the you know like a construction project it's a massive engineering project and they're testing it out and they're talking about it and Israel publishes this video uh of of Muhammad sinir who's one of the top operational commanders in Kasam um just driving into the tunnel in a car so again you you have to use your imagination a little bit to to to to imagine what else is in the 500 kilometers of tunnels yeah um when you see these guys just uh hey yeah turn take a right here while we're driving through the tunnel in our car and after they and after uh they uncovered after the Israelis uncovered that one tunnel that comes out in near arrows Kasam had a response didn't they yeah so we have that here did we have that here let's so Kasam is able to respond to this uh within hours so this is Gant they don't go in the tunnel they're just standing at the entrance that they dug out um but this is a Kasam video that was released a few hours after Israel released saying that this tunnel goes to arz um Israel tried to frame it in terms of like a but so this video is uh you were too late and this is all October 7th and and interest interestingly this is October 7th footage that's only from Aras so they didn't just make uh best of October 7th they're mocking the Israelis showing this video by only showing footage from Aras you arrive too late um it's just remarkable so we're talking about command and the mission had been completed um when you're talking about command and control Israel puts out a propaganda video that makes Kasam look incredible that this un unbelievable engineering feat um but then they turn it into propaganda Kasam is able to respond to that propaganda within several hours with footage that's so specific that it only deals with the AAS part of October 7th just the sophistication the command and control the ability to um to to function as an organization is obviously completely intact and I just one other point that that some analysts have made that I think is a good one I'd like to see what you think about that John is that if this tunnel that the Israelis discovered had any strategic value to Israel for example if it led them to a broader network of tunnels that or they could use this entrance to somehow flood the tunnels or go in or do whatever they think they're going to do Israel would not have released the video because you wouldn't want to tell Kasam we know about this tunnel do you think that's a good point yeah and and also just when you look at that tunnel can you imagine flooding that tunnel with water it's so absurd it's like you know PE I think people think maybe the Israelis think that they're these CU a lot of the the the branches of the tunnel are like we saw them um the the archway looks like it's about 6 and 1/2 ft tall um but these are clues that we're seeing that just open up enormous um contingencies that just make it seem like it's not serious I if if Israel found this tunnel wouldn't the first thing they would do you'd think would be to go in and begin the mapping of this tunnel um but that's not on their their radar it's it's it's it's strange I mean I don't want to jinx things and and and make the Israelis not release this footage but the footage that Israel releases thinking that they're somehow um you know showing how evil Kasam is are just brilliant engineering um you know the videos that they show are are just crazy heroism they say like oh this is them fighting in a in a school or whatever and and what they're showing is just like heroic um indigenous resistance um to genocide in their own communities and this response by it's so ingenious as well like and and the scale of it is really incredible to see I mean and it's really it's really interesting that it shows how the Israelis kind of don't believe their own propaganda when they they putting out this stuff about flooding tunnels so on one hand they kind of have want to have it both ways where they're sort of saying well this this this terrible Evil Underground lay on one hand but on the other hand we're just going to flood them with uh with seawater and you know there's no way they would have thought of you know basic engineering things like uh drainage and so forth and it's just it's I mean the footage we see there I remember we showed a we showed another tunnel video quite fairly early on I think it might have been one of the streams that got taken down but that was a um SAR El C's video of a of a SM of a SM smaller tunnel um and even that had in it you know infrastructure it had medical we I remember you comment in it at the time it had um first aid kits even a fire extinguisher and a a telephone you know its own presumably its own secure uh Communications Network so you know it's like you said it looks like these are basically small underground cities yeah and remember in 2002 when the Israelis said that they were um you know walking through walls and they were like they did all this like architecture uh based stuff where they you know they said like we're reimagining the landscape uh we when we look at a room we don't see a living room we reimagine it and puncher a hole in the wall to walk through the next like where is that reimagining architecture when you're talking about the other side like they made the Israelis seem like they were Geniuses to reimagine the land landcape and what we're looking at here is a is a a besieged people um creating uh like reimagining the landscape in such a way that even us who are totally invested in it um every time a video comes out there's something new that we we didn't we couldn't even fathom um or or didn't even think to Fathom um like when you have a tunnel that's that big the the the limit the the ability the capacity to do anything with that like to make a hospital or to make um you know bomb shelters in the future for for the civilian population like that's reimagining the landscape incredible it it's really remarkable that uh when you think about just the determination it you know just just to say you talk about reimagining but then to do it then to Marshall the resources to organize this to to to get the supplies needed to do it and this is necessary I mean you have you have this this common Israeli talking point that oh why why is the Hamas they are always building a instead of building the tunnels why they aren't building the schools the hospitals for the for the Palestinians in Gaza why they steal the concrete and they are stealing everything and building the tunnel why not to build something positive you've all heard that talking point Colonel doie that's uh that's uh Brigadier General dudy benzona my friend uh so but you know we've we've all uh heard this talking point but the point of course is that Israel doesn't allow Palestinians to build to prosper to thrive pales Ians built universities in Gaza and Israel has destroyed them Palestinians built uh uh their homes in Gaza Israel destroyed them Palestinians built hospitals in Gaza Israel destroyed them so the point is that Palestinians are forced to resist in this manner uh and to build to reimagine and then to implement and it's just extraordinary just absolutely extraordinary and we only know a fraction of it the the fact is nobody outside Kasam knows the extent of this and how deep it goes and how far it goes we're we're seeing these Snippets and extrapolating and making some uh you know reasonable uh inferences but the reality is we don't know what they've got right and while there is uh you know while there are Fighters uh inside the tunnels under ground there are also fighters above ground um there there's also a jelly bean we want to show about um uh a battle in Gaza City where um yeah just to say quickly too that yeah yeah that building resistance infrastructure isn't separate from a state that's they're building resistance infrastructure to defend themselves against genocide When The War started in Israel Israel bragged about how they gave everybody guns and called up 360,000 reserves and Israel has a right to defend itself and Israel has all these rights um that are military based um why don't the Palestinians get that right too so the idea that um building underground tunnels for your resistance Fighters is somehow robbing your population of something is it's it's wrong it's upside down the ability to resist um is for the entire population so that's how it's seen in Israel that's how it's seen in the United States in Canada you know we celebrate with monuments these Fighters um you know so why doesn't it get to be that way for Palestinians like why can't they celebrate their resistance and why does the resistance have to be told it's somehow separate from the national project of of of the civilians that are struggling and are the target of this war thanks for watching this video please subscribe to our YouTube channel hit like leave a comment these engagements help us with the YouTube algorithm and it helps us to get around Silicon Valley censorship as much as possible it does make a difference you can also support our journalism by going to electronic in.net and clicking on donate now thank you