Flooding Underground Tunnels in Gaza May Have Long-Term Humanitarian Impact - UNHRC
© AP Photo / Victor R. Caivano
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GENEVA (Sputnik) - Israel's flooding of Palestinian armed group Hamas's underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip with seawater may have long-term humanitarian consequences, UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told Sputnik on Thursday, adding that any military operation must be conducted in accordance with international law.
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials, that the Israeli military had started pumping seawater into a vast network of tunnels used by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"We fear a number of adverse human rights impacts, some long term, from pumping large quantities of salt water underground," Laurence told Sputnik.
The spokesperson also said that any military attack "must be justified in terms of military necessity, precaution and proportionality" and should not cause excessive damage and harm to civilians or civilian objects.
"Neither may an attack render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, nor be used where widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment may be expected to be caused," Laurence added.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Lynn Hastings said on Wednesday that there was a risk of buildings and roads collapsing because of the increased pressure and infiltration of seawater into Gaza, if the information on the flooding of the tunnels were to be confirmed.
On October 7, Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip and breached the border, killing over 1,200 people and abducting some 240 others. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 18,500 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of the conflict, according to local authorities.
