Israel’s military has begun pumping seawater into Hamas’s vast complex of tunnels in Gaza, according to U.S. officials briefed on the Israeli military’s operations, part of an intensive effort to destroy the underground infrastructure that has underpinned the group’s operations.

The move to flood the tunnels with water from the Mediterranean, which is in an early stage, is one of several techniques Israel is using to try to clear and destroy the tunnels. …

Flooding the tunnels, which would likely be a weekslong process, began around the time Israel added two more pumps to the five pumps installed last month and conducted some initial tests, U.S. officials said.

[I had thought this effort had already begun, but apparently those were tests of the overall plan. The tests must have gone well. Get ready for a lot of screaming over the environmental impact, but this is clearly the best path. (A) This is far less lethal to both IDF soldiers and actual Gaza civilians than all other methods of destruction available. (B) Gazans never have made proper use of their aquifer, thanks to Hamas’ theft of massive aid spending on infrastructure going to tunnel construction instead. (C) The alternative is to go scorched-earth on Gaza, and that has a lot of environmental issues too. — Ed]