MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Erik Prince, the entrepreneur who founded Blackwater and other military companies, said Monday that the Pentagon had blocked him from giving Israel technology to flood the Hamas tunnels in Gaza.
Prince told the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Fest outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee that he had been willing to donate the necessary equipment, “fully funded,” to Israel, but that the Department of Defense had rejected his involvement. “Blocked by the Pentagon,” he said.
The suggestion of flooding the tunnels with seawater came up early in the war, when it was learned that Hamas had succeeded in digging between 350 and 450 miles of tunnels under Gaza — far more than had been previously estimated. As Breitbart News reported, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attempted to flood some tunnels, avoiding those where it was presumed that hostages were being held.
However, a broader flooding project was not undertaken. There were concerns that bringing so much seawater underground could permanently destroy Gaza’s underground aquifer, whose water is already saltier than normal.
The primary benefit of the proposal appears to have been as a form of psychological warfare, suggesting to Hamas terrorists that they might eventually drown underground if they persisted in staying in their subterranean lairs.
