According to a previous report by The Times of Israel, the Israeli army is conducting a "deep underground operation" in the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, U.S. officials revealed that Israel began "cautiously testing" the use of seawater to fill the Gaza tunnel with seawater to counter the underground warfare model of Hamas members.
Today, Israel is desperate to eliminate Hamas in order to gain absolute control of Gaza and thus consolidate its position in the Middle East.
In fact, in the 70s of the last century, Israel also had a similar "crazy" behavior, they built a 175-kilometer defense line in the Sinai Peninsula, costing $300 million, but in China, the Egyptian army was crushed with 450 high-pressure water cannons, and finally became a laughing stock.
The famous Bar-Lev Line
This defensive line, also known as the Bar-Lev Line, was primarily intended for long-term control of this important strategic location in the Sinai Peninsula.
The Sinai Peninsula is geographically located at the junction of Asia and Africa, close to the State of Israel, and connected to the Gaza Strip
In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel relied on its strong military strength to defeat Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and the strategic defense line continued to expand outward, and finally extended to the west side of the Sinai Peninsula.
【The geographical location is very special】
However, the size of the Sinai Peninsula and Israel's small population make it difficult to achieve actual control.
Therefore, they decided to spend a huge amount of money to build a 175-kilometer defensive line near the western coastline to resist the Egyptian army's attack.
It is not easy to build such a fortification, in addition to the large amount of manpower, material and financial resources, there is also a shortage of raw materials.
The soil structure in the Middle East is mostly fine sand, and there are few large stone mines for the construction of defense lines, and if you want to import them, the amount of work is too large.
[The soil structure in the Middle East is mainly fine sand]
Israel has "cleverly" come up with a solution, that is, to directly use the local sand to build a sand bank position, which can be mined on site while saving costs.
The idea was proposed by Israeli Chief of Staff Barlev, who blew the line into the sky so that many high-ranking Israeli officials believed it and named it after Bar-Lev.
Of course, the Bar-Lev Line is not only sand, but also a large number of pillboxes, and the garrisons leading to the defense line can quickly form fire coverage to prevent enemy charges, and the Israeli army conducts round-the-clock patrols, which can be described as "strict defense".
[The preserved Bar-Lev Line]
But after a hundred secrets, the Egyptian army still found a way to break through the defense line.
Clever Egyptians
In the beginning, Egypt thought of many ways, such as digging a tunnel directly on the sand slope to the inside of the defense line to transport soldiers, and the inside and outside should cooperate to carry out a counteroffensive.
But after experiments, they found that this method was not realistic at all, because the sand was fluid, and the tunnels dug would soon be filled with sand.
Since sand is fluid, is it possible to take advantage of this?
In 1971, an Egyptian engineer came up with the idea of using water to cut sand, and he proposed that high-pressure water cannons could be used to spray the Bar-Lev line remotely.
When a large amount of water and sand is mixed, the strong line of defense is broken.
Later, experiments showed that 1 cubic meter of seawater can wash away 1 cubic meter of sand, and the sand defense line impacted by the water cannon melts like ice and snow.
So the Egyptian army, after careful planning, formed a special operations team of 8,000 people, equipped with 450 high-pressure water cannons.
On the day of the attack, Egypt took the lead in carrying out a round of artillery strikes on the Bar-Lev line, and the special operations team took the opportunity to come to the vicinity of the line.
In just about 5 hours, the Bar-Lev line was opened more than 60 passages to the Sinai Peninsula, and the tattered defense line was no longer worth defending.
Two Israeli brigades stationed in the Bar-Lev line were also completely defeated, and the Egyptian army suffered only more than 200 casualties, many of them by mines, and Bar-Lev and his line became a laughing stock.
How to evaluate the Bar-Lev Line
Actually, there was no problem with Bar-Lev's idea of building a line of defense in the Sinai Peninsula to stop the Egyptian army.
Because the only land threat in the Sinai Peninsula is from Egypt, Jordan to the east, although it is eyeing the peninsula, does not directly border the peninsula, and if they want to attack, they must pass through Israel proper, which is obviously difficult for them to do.
Of course, these countries can also choose to attack from the sea and carry out beach-grabbing operations, but these generally do not have sufficient maritime strength.
As a result, the lengthy handover line on the west side became the only thing Israel needed attention.
There was nothing wrong with the idea of building a defensive line against Egypt, as was the case with the ancient Great Wall built on the mainland.
Coupled with Israel's strict defense of the defensive line, it is not wrong to say that it is "impregnable".
But Israel's only mistake was in its unrealistic use of fine sand as a raw material for its defensive line, so that it could be breached so easily.
If the defence built by Israel was made of concrete, like that of the people who cut off the Gaza Strip today, it is possible that the country would still be encroaching on the Sinai Peninsula.
History will not give them a chance to start over, and Israel's ambitions for expansion in the Middle East will eventually be shattered.
After all, the Israelis were originally "uninvited guests" in the Middle East, and the Israelis migrated from the region at a very early stage, and then there was a wave of Jewish return for historical reasons, and for many years the "cunning" Jews lured a large amount of land from the Palestinian people.
It is important to know that before there was a clear division between the Batstan region and the territory of Israel, the territory owned by both sides was almost the same.
However, the countries of the Middle East did not welcome this "outsider", and the contradictions between the two sides intensified, as was the case with many Middle East wars in history.
However, Israel's dominance in many Middle East wars and its growing land area have almost pushed the Palestinian people into a desperate situation, which is the direct cause of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Resources:
[1] Xinhuanet: "Through the vicissitudes of life, the charm lasts forever - into the beautiful Sinai Peninsula"
[2] Global Network: "Privy Council No. 10: This Myth of Israel Has Been Shattered!"