Next time you hear the usual suspects complain about the Israeli military blockade of Gaza, or how Gazans have not been able to rebuild since the 2014 war, keep in mind how many resources the ruling Hamas diverts to missiles, terror, and most of all, attack tunnels.
The Hamas tunneling effort diverts huge amounts of concrete, steel, fuel and electricity that could be used for civilian purposes. I discussed in July 2014 how Hamas’ tunnel effort demonstrates that it has no interest in building a civil society, One People built tunnels, the other a nation:
Just think what could have been.Israel left Gaza in 2005. The vast international aid that flowed to Gaza could have been used to build the foundation of a nation.Instead it was put to building tunnels and rocket infrastructure.Rather than forging economic ties with the world, it forged military ties with Iran and Hezbollah to achieve the goal of the Hamas charter — the destruction of Israel.Meanwhile, Israel continued to build a nation, becoming one of the high tech capitals of the world.That could have been Gaza, where the people obviously have tremendous skills and ingenuity. But it was a choice that was not made.
Tunnels have been a major strategic asset of Hamas and other terror groups, and were used with some effect during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Cross-border tunnels are frequently shown to visiting diplomats.
We have covered Israel’s discovery and destruction of several such tunnels in the years after the 2014 war:
It has happened again. The Times of Israel reports, IDF destroys ‘longest and deepest’ Hamas cross-border attack tunnel:
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday announced it destroyed a sophisticated Hamas attack tunnel, leading from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, over the weekend.The tunnel was the “longest and deepest” underground passage discovered in Israel thus far, according to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.It passed under the border in an area where Palestinian protesters have recently clashed with security forces, the army said.A military spokesman said the tunnel was dug by the Hamas terrorist group and was connected to a “kilometers-long” network of other passages under the Gaza Strip.
That the tunnel passed under the area of the recent attempts to storm the border fence is significant. It demonstrates, once again, that the border fence attacks are part of a broader Hamas attempt for cross-border terror. If if had not been discovered, it’s likely that some future “protest” would have been cover for a tunnel kidnapping or attack on Israelis.
The Jerusalem Post notes:
It was the fifth cross-border tunnel to be found and destroyed by the Israeli army in recent months and the first to be found in the northern area of the Hamas-run enclave. Several other underground targets have also been destroyed inside in the Strip.In February, the army destroyed one tunnel near Gaza’s destroyed airport located east of Rafah in the southern part of the Strip close to the Israeli border and another one in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City which was dug toward Israeli territory.
Ynet News reports that the tunnel was filled by the Israelis with concrete.
This map shows the location of tunnels destroyed recently:
The IDF Spokesperson posted the Featured Image and these images on Twitter:
You can see how well constructed the tunnel was, just like prior tunnels. The tunnel ran into Israel, not Egypt, so it clearly was not a smuggling tunnel, but an attack tunnel.
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