Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Israel's AM radio pierces Gaza tunnels in a bid to soothe hostages

 

By Dan Williams
ERUSALEM, Jan 22 (Reuters) - After conquering a Hamas tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip, a group of Israeli soldiers went down it with some unusual kit in hand - not explosives, robot probes or pistols for close combat, but rather: old-style, dial-operated transistor radios.
Their mission was to descend until the devices could no longer receive AM transmissions from Israel. That point, they found, was at about 10 to 12 metres depth, generally the upper "storeys" of Palestinian militants' subterranean network.

The tunnel experiment dangled another possibility for a country tormented with worry for 132 people held hostage by Hamas-led gunmen in the enclave: reaching out to them with custom-composed, morale-raising Army Radio broadcasts.

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