Combing the desert: 'Spaceballs' and the Hamas tunnel quagmire - analysis

As the IDF comes close to concluding its second invasion of Shejaia in northern Gaza and starts its reinvasion of Gaza City – the fifth reinvasion of a part of Gaza – many are asking why didn’t the IDF destroy all of the Hamas tunnels during its first run-through?

Weren’t tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands upon thousands of airstrikes from October to January enough to do the job?

Clearly, the answer is no – the explanation of why: Spaceballs.

This is not a random explanation by The Jerusalem Post but an analogy used to define the challenge by a high-level defense source with some of the most intimate and up-close knowledge of the challenges of Hamas’s tunnels in multiple areas of northern and southern Gaza.

What does Spaceballs, an off-color 1987 cinematic comedy spoofing Star Wars, have to do with understanding tunnel warfare and the immense challenge and quagmire the IDF is confronting in eliminating the Gazan terror group’s greatest tool for hiding its leadership, hiding hostages, ambushing IDF forces, and avoiding aerial detection?

The answer – the scene with the giant comb in the desert.

During the scene, Spaceballs’ version of the evil empire is searching an immense desert planet in a spoof of the original Star Wars search for two robots who hold a secret message that can save the good rebel alliance from the empire.

The slapstick scene shows empire leaders ordering their troops to “comb” the entire desert for the escaped robots – with them actually using giant combs to hopelessly make their way through the sand.

IDF remains hopeful, but more work to be done

According to the high-level defense source, the IDF’s progress is not at all hopeless, and huge progress has been made in destroying Hamas tunnels both in the first invasion stage of October-January and in the reinvasion stages that have been taking place in recent months, including now in Shejaia and Gaza City.

But seeing the vastness of a planet full of sand and the limited search capabilities of the giant combs hits home how long it would take the IDF to actually destroy every Hamas tunnel.

In December 2023, a top defense source told the Post and others that it would take around two years (i.e. December 2025) to destroy all of the Hamas tunnels in just the Khan Yunis area, and that would have been if the IDF kept working on the tunnels without a break.

Instead, the IDF was only in  Khan Yunis in full force until February, and by April 7 had pulled out.

That means that if and when the IDF would return to Khan Yunis, it could easily have another 19 months of work to do – if it kept working on the issue constantly.

Another senior IDF source told the Post recently during an embedded visit to Rafah that it would take a minimum of six months nonstop to eliminate just the cross-border tunnels into Egypt – without even giving an estimate for destroying all Rafah tunnels, given that that project seemed too far away to even estimate at this point.

Translate these numbers into the entire Gaza Strip, and it becomes apparent that absent years of constant attention, there will always be more tunnels for Hamas to hide in.

Given the possibility of a ceasefire deal in the coming weeks, the public should not be surprised if the IDF’s achievement regarding tunnel destruction, while very substantial and includes eliminating all major strategic Hamas tunnels that existed on October 7, will still not be close to destroying all of the tunnels.

For those of the public who have not understood until now how the IDF could both have destroyed so many tunnels and also not arrived at so many tunnels – Spaceballs has finally paved the way to an answer.