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It would be a war crime for Israel to flood the tunnels in Gaza, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said.
A Russian diplomat has warned that Israel’s plan to flood Hamas tunnels in order to flush out the terrorists may constitute a war crime.
“War crimes are snowballing — shocking reports have been circulated in recent days that Israel plans to flood underground facilities in the Gaza Strip with seawater,” Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said during a United Nations Security Council meeting this week.
“According to open sources, the IDF has already built a system of pumps and pipes to pump seawater and is currently discussing with the United States practical aspects of such flooding: whether there will be enough water or if the tunnels’ ‘topography’ is fit for that and so on. Such a step, if made, will constitute a blatant war crime,” Polyansky argued.
The Wall Street Journal earlier this week reported that the Israel Defense Forces have constructed five large seawater pumps about one mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp, with each pump capable of moving thousands of cubic meters of water per hour from the Mediterranean Sea into the Hamas tunnels.