The ‘SPONGE bomb’ Israel are hoping to use to disable Hamas tunnels: New gadget expands and hardens, filling underground passageways

• Israeli troops may trap Hamas in tunnels using innovative new ‘sponge bombs’

Israeli troops could be planning to disable Hamas tunnels and trap the terrorists underground using innovative ‘sponge bombs’.

How to deal with concealed fighters hiding in the myriad of tunnels under Gaza will be one the main concerns for the Israel Defence Force (IDF) when they begin their long-promised ground offensive into the besieged city.

And according to some reports, a secret new weapon dubbed the ‘sponge bomb’ could see deployment for the first time.

Based around a liquid emulsion, the chemical compound can be dropped into a tunnel before rapidly expanding and hardening, potentially trapping attackers down alleys or securing safe routes for Israeli commandos while searching for hostages.

How Israeli sponge bombs could be used to trap Hamas terrorists in tunnels underground

How to deal with concealed fighters hiding in the myriad of tunnels under Gaza will be one the main concerns for the Israel Defence Force (IDF) when they begin their long-promised ground offensive into the besieged city

Hamas terrorists sitting in tunnels underneath Gaza which the IDF will try to neutralise with ‘sponge bombs’

Troops are said to have used the handheld devices at the Israeli military’s ‘mini Gaza’, a mock-up of the urban warren where they will soon be expected to fight constructed at the Urban Warfare Training Center in the Negev desert.

According to the Telegraph, the bombs feature a metal partition separating the two volatile liquids, which immediately react when they touch.

The material is said to be so hazardous that Israeli troops were blinded during practise sessions.

Foam and even slime have often been considered for their potential military utility, but results have been modest.

A fighter holding a rocket propelled grenade launcher climbs out of a Gaza tunnel

A general view shows the interiors of what the Israeli military say is a cross-border attack tunnel dug from Gaza to Israel, on the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border

The estimate that the tunnels stretch hundreds of kilometres is widely accepted by security analysts, even though the blockaded coastal strip is only 40km (25 miles) long

American troops used guns shooting ultra-sticky foam as a non-lethal way to disable rioters while on deployment in Somalia in the mid-1990s, although results are said to have been mixed.

However, any weapon, no matter how experimental, could be crucial if Israel does indeed intend to enter the tunnels.

The estimate that they stretch hundreds of kilometres is widely accepted by security analysts, even though the blockaded coastal strip is only 40km (25 miles) long.

And while Hamas is naturally secretive about their networks, the recently released Israeli hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, said: ‘It looked like a spider’s web, many, many tunnels’, adding: ‘We walked kilometres under the ground.’

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