The Islamic terrorist group Hamas suffered another setback as it expanded its massive terror tunnel network underneath Gaza. The 24-year-old terrorist, Muhammad Ashraf Abed, was “martyred” after a tunnel collapsed over him, the Gaza-based Islamic terror group confirmed Wednesday.
The terrorism-related occupational accident is the latest in the caving tunnels caused by heavy rains. Hamas claims to have dug up more than 300 miles of tunnel network crisscrossing Gaza. Many of these underground terror tunnels have been dug through the sand and run beneath crowded neighborhoods, schools and mosques.
The Times of Israel reported the latest Palestinian work accident:
A Hamas terrorist was killed Wednesday when an offensive tunnel collapsed on him, the Gaza-based group said.Hamas named the terrorist as Muhammad Ashraf Abed, 24, from the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the terror group’s military wing, said he was “martyred after the collapse of a resistance tunnel.”Several Hamas terrorists have reportedly died in recent months while working inside the tunnels, primarily built in sand, due to heavy rains that have led to their collapse.In November, Maj. Avichai Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic spokesman, warned residents of Gaza of the issue, imploring them to stay away from the tunnels due to landslides in the area, which he said were the likely result of the destruction of the underground system.“According to estimates, the cause of these collapses is linked to the underground system of Hamas,” he wrote in Arabic.“These events are the latest example, but not the only one, of Hamas’s absurd use of civilian areas. It is unpredictable when the earth will shake again under the feet of the Gazans because of this blatant exploitation that the local population pays for time and again,” he stated.
While terrorists like Muhammad Ashraf Abed endanger the lives of Gazans as they dig under their homes, schools, and mosques, such men are enticed with rich heavenly rewards for their “martyrdom” in the path of jihad. In 2018, a Sharia court judge from Gaza, Sheikh Omar Nofal, assured that a martyred jihadi “is married to 72 virgins of Paradise.” He added that a “martyr can vouch for 70 of his relatives. The martyr can intercede on behalf of his entire family.”
“How can anyone cling to this world after hearing all of these great rewards?” the bearded old man declared on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV channel.
Hamas doesn’t just seek out martyrdom-seeking grown-up men. The group forces Palestinian children to dig tunnels under dangerous conditions. A 2015 report by Israel TV channel Arutz Sheva disclosed that “[a]t least 160 Palestinian Arab children [had] died digging terror tunnels.”
The constant flow of generous foreign aid in the name of ‘rebuilding’ Gaza has enabled Hamas to acquire heavy equipment, including mining machines, to dig the vast tunnel network. These terror tunnels, built at an estimated cost of $150 million, are equipped with electricity and communication devices. “Terror tunnels can take a year or more to complete and require significant financial resources, engineering knowledge, manpower and supplies (a single tunnel can require up to 500 tons of concrete),” an Israeli Foreign Ministry report says.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas tunnels are used as “weapons caches, bunkers, command centers and a concealed transportation artery for terrorists and weapons, including rocket launchers.”
The Hamas tunnels leading up to the Israeli border have an even more sinister purpose. “Some of these tunnels lead directly from Gaza to Israeli communities near the border, enabling terrorists to infiltrate, kidnap and attack Israeli civilians,” the IDF warns.
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