Hamas PM Haniya in Friday Sermon: We Are Digging Tunnels East of Gaza, MEMRI-TV via You Tube, February 2, 2016
Posted tagged ‘tunnels’
Hamas: The “Merchants of War” Who Seek to Destroy Israel
February 2, 2016Hamas: The “Merchants of War” Who Seek to Destroy Israel, Gatestone Institute, Khaled Abu Toameh, February 2, 2016
♦ In the words of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the tunnels are being dug not only to “defend the Gaza Strip, but to serve as a launching pad to reach all of Palestine.” As one can see from any map of Palestine, “all of Palestine” does not mean living in peace alongside Israel; it means supplanting Israel.
♦ To its credit, Hamas has been refreshingly transparent about its ambition, the elimination of Israel. Hamas wants the Palestinians to continue living in misery and bitterness. It is fertile soil for jihad recruitment.
♦ A Palestinian Authority-Hamas unity government would mean tunnels not only along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, but also from the West Bank into Israel.
♦ Forever looming, of course, is the illusion that Abbas will be able to persuade Hamas to abandon its aim to destroy Israel.
The myth that Hamas uses tunnels to smuggle food and other necessities to the “besieged” Gaza Strip has been buried under the rubble of the tunnel that collapsed last week east of Gaza City.
The incident, in which seven members of Hamas’s armed wing, Ezaddin Al-Qassam, were killed when the tunnel they were working in collapsed, provides further proof that the Islamist movement has stayed true to its charter, which calls for the total destruction of Israel.
The Hamas men who were killed in the tunnel collapse belonged to the movement’s elite “Tunnel Unit.” According to Ezaddin Al-Qassam, the men were busy repairing one of the tunnels (damaged during the 2014 war with Israel) when it collapsed due to severe weather conditions.
Contrary to popular belief, the tunnel was not being renovated to allow Palestinians to smuggle basic goods from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. This was one of many tunnels that Hamas has dug over the past few years to infiltrate Israel and carry out terror attacks.
Hamas makes no secret of the goal of its renovations. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar readily admits that the tunnels are being rebuilt to target Israel.
Indeed, clarity seems to be the name of the game with Hamas. Senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayeh explained that his organization would continue to dig tunnels for use in future confrontations with Israel. “We have enough mujahideen [jihad warriors] to replace their brothers who were martyred [in the tunnel collapse],” he said during the funeral of the seven Hamas members.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh went a step further: the tunnels were not only designed to launch terror attacks against Israelis, but to “liberate all of Palestine.” In the words of Haniyeh, the tunnels are being dug not only to “defend the Gaza Strip, but to serve as a launching pad to reach all of Palestine.” As one can see from any map of Palestine, “all of Palestine” does not mean living in peace alongside Israel; it means supplanting Israel.
In the words of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (left), the tunnels Hamas digs from Gaza into Israel (right) are not only to “defend the Gaza Strip, but to serve as a launching pad to reach all of Palestine.”
For Haniyeh, the tunnels are a “strategic weapon” in Hamas’s jihad to destroy Israel. Hamas’s military wing dug the tunnels around the Gaza Strip “to defend our people and liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem,” the Hamas leader stated.
Hamas, it is argued, has changed it colors. It is now ready, the theory goes, to reject its own charter and accept a two-state solution.
So much for a Hamas change of heart.
To its credit, Hamas has been refreshingly transparent about its ambition, the elimination of Israel. Yet Hamas has few ambitions for those now clasped in its grip. Nearly a decade after its violent seizure of Gaza, the movement and its leaders have offered the 1.9 million Palestinians stranded there precious little but destruction and death.
Oh, and tunnels. Hamas has tunnels — two types. The tunnels running under the border with Egypt are designed as conduits for weapons. The tunnels running under the border with Israel are reserved for Israel’s destruction.
Hamas’s Palestinian political rivals have pointed out in the past few days that the tunnels have turned the leaders of the Islamist movement into “merchants of war.” These “merchants,” according to the Palestinians, have long been using the smuggling tunnels to increase their personal wealth at the expense of dozens of underpaid workers who work as diggers around the clock.
As Al-Hayeh has made evident, Hamas is prepared to sacrifice as many Palestinians as it takes to advance its deadly goals. Between 2006 and 2011, 188 Palestinians were killed while working in Hamas’s tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip, according to figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Moreover, child-labor legislation seems not to have made many inroads in Hamas-run Gaza. Children under the age of 18 constitute at least 10% of the dead in the tunnel-digging industry.
And while the economy of Gaza is in tatters, Hamas has invested millions of dollars into its tunnel-building projects.
Unemployment in the Gaza Strip during the year 2015 topped 40%, while more than 65% of the population live under the poverty line. More than half of its population is now almost entirely dependent on aid from different relief and humanitarian organizations. Economic experts predict a gloomier scenario for the Gaza Strip during 2016.
Despite its claims to the contrary, however, the last thing Hamas cares about is the welfare of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In fact, Hamas wants the Palestinians to continue living in misery and bitterness. It is fertile soil for jihad recruitment.
The collapse of the tunnel last week and renewed Hamas threats to pursue the fight against Israel coincide with reports that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to resume his efforts to achieve “national reconciliation” and “unity” with the Islamist movement.
According to the reports, representatives of the two sides are scheduled to meet in Qatar next week in yet another bid to end their dispute and pave the way for a new Palestinian unity government and elections.
Forever looming, of course, is the illusion that Abbas will be able to persuade Hamas to abandon its aim to destroy Israel.
Hamas will never exchange its attack tunnels for PA cabinet portfolios. Abbas recently announced an interest in resuming peace talks with Israel. His interest, however, has been for some time taken up by reaching out to Hamas. A PA-Hamas unity government would mean tunnels not only along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, but also from the West Bank into Israel.
It was not only seven men, then, who were buried beneath the rubble of the collapsed attack tunnel last week. Along with them was buried the persistent but utterly naïve hope that Hamas will somehow transform itself into a “peace partner” for Israel, the Palestinian Authority or even the Palestinian people.
Hezbollah Prepares
May 28, 2015Hezbollah Prepares, Power Line, Scott Johnson, May 28, 2015
[T]he Israelis will have to mobilize massive force to shorten the duration of a future war. One of the things they’ll do is immediately is move to eliminate as much of Hezbollah’s vast arsenal as possible. Hezbollah is counting on the resulting deaths of their human shields – and they’ve guaranteed to that the body count will be significant – to turn Israel into an international pariah.
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There is so much bad news coming out of the Middle East that it is hard to keep up. Omri Ceren writes from The Israel Project to fill us in on a preview of coming attractions featuring the proxy forces of President Obama’s Iranian friends. Where precisely does Hezbollah fit in Obama’s vision of Iran as a friendly regional power? Too bad Jeffrey Goldberg didn’t riddle Obama that particular question.
This is Omri’s email message verbatim, complete with the URLs of footnoted stories. I thought that readers who have found Omri’s reports helpful might find this of interest as well:
Variations of this story have been bouncing around for the last few weeks. Two weeks ago there were major recent pieces in the NYT and AP articles, where journalists got to look at IDF aerial photography showing that Hezbollah has moved the vast majority of its military infrastructure into Shiite villages [1][2]. They’ve taken their arsenal – 100,000+ rockets including Burkan rockets with half-ton warheads, ballistic missiles including Scud-Ds that can hit all of Israel, supersonic advanced anti-ship cruise missiles, anti-aircraft assets, drones and mini drones, tunnels, etc. – and embedded it across hundreds of villianges and probably thousands of homes.
The Syrian war has been good for Hezbollah in that respect. They’ve cleaned out Assad’s depots and brought the goods back to Lebanon.
The Israelis can’t afford a war of attrition with Hezbollah. The Iran-backed terror group has the ability to saturation bomb Israeli civilians with 1,500 projectiles a day, every day, for over two months. They will try to bring down Tel Aviv’s skyscrapers with ballistic missiles. They will try to fly suicide drones into Israel’s nuclear reactor. They will try to detonate Israel’s off-shore energy infrastructure. They will try to destroy Israeli military and civilian runways. And – mainly but not exclusively through their tunnels – they will try to overrun Israeli towns and drag away women and children as hostages. Israeli casualties would range in the thousands to tens of thousands.
And so the Israelis will have to mobilize massive force to shorten the duration of a future war. One of the things they’ll do is immediately is move to eliminate as much of Hezbollah’s vast arsenal as possible. Hezbollah is counting on the resulting deaths of their human shields – and they’ve guaranteed to that the body count will be significant – to turn Israel into an international pariah. But the Israelis can’t let Hezbollah level their entire country with indiscriminate rocket fire and advanced missiles, just because no one in Lebanon is willing or able to expel the group from Shiite villages.
This weekend’s round of stories actually came from Hezbollah’s side. As-Safir – a Lebanese daily and a major Hezbollah mouthpiece – published a series of puff pieces about how Hezbollah has turned all of southern Lebanon into a vast military complex. I’ve pasted the full AP/TOI write-up at the bottom [omitted here, [a href=”http://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-flaunts-advanced-tunnel-network-on-israeli-border/”>this is the story], but it’s what you’d expect:
According to the reports, based on a tour of Hezbollah facilities given to the newspaper, the group has built a sprawling underground array of tunnels, bunkers and surveillance outposts along the border with Israel, which it is manning at peak readiness for battle. The tunnels are said to be highly-advanced, with durable concrete, a 24-hour power supply via underground generators, a ventilation system to prevent damp from damaging military equipment and a web of secondary escape shafts in case of attack. The tunnels are said to be housing tens of thousands of rockets ready for launch, themselves wrapped in protective materials in order to preserve them.
None of this is new. In early 2013 veteran Israeli war correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai did a deep dive into Hezbollah military posture [3]. He revealed among other things that Hezbollah had given away thousands of homes to poor Shiite families, on the condition “that at least one rocket launcher would be placed in one of the house’s rooms or in the basement, along with a number of rockets, which will be fired at predetermined targets in Israel when the order is given.” Then in 2014 air force chief Major-General Amir Eshel gave a speech outlining how Hezbollah has embedded its military assets in “thousands” of residential buildings, emphasizing that Israel would have no choice but to target that infrastructure in a war. Reuters picked up the speech under the headline “Hoping to deter Hezbollah, Israel threatens Lebanese civilians” [4].
But there’s a lot of chatter in the Middle East about a summer war between Israel and Lebanon, so you’re seeing a new round of stories about what it might look like. On one hand the Israelis and Hezbollah are saying the same thing: all of southern Lebanon is now one big military compound. But only the Israelis are pointing out that Hezbollah has made sure that in that compound there are tens of thousands of civilians.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/world/middleeast/israel-says-hezbollah-positions-put-lebanese-at-risk.html
[2] http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_HEZBOLLAH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-13-14-10-05
[3] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4343397,00.html
[4] http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/29/us-israel-lebanon-hezbollah-idUSBREA0S1PS20140129
Egypt uncovers 82 new Gaza-Sinai smuggling tunnels
December 3, 2014Egypt uncovers 82 new Gaza-Sinai smuggling tunnels, DEBKAfile, December 3, 2014
The Egyptian army this week unearthed a total of 82 new smuggling tunnels running from Sinai to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. It turns out that neither Israeli nor Egyptian intelligence had caught on to the massive project. The illicit passageways were discovered by chance when Egyptian troops were working on on a new buffer zone to separate Sinai from the Palestinian enclave. Both agencies were taken aback by the speed with which Hamas had reconstituted its underground system for smuggling arms and fighting men into the Gaza Strip, after it was practically demolished by Egypt and Israel.
Bi-Partisan Senate Trio Demand Answers From Kerry on UNRWA Conduct in Gaza
August 14, 2014Senators use harsh language to call UNRWA on its outrageous ties to Hamas and its one-sided condemnations of Israel
By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Published: August 14th, 2014
via The Jewish Press » » Bi-Partisan Senate Trio Demand Answers From Kerry on UNRWA Conduct in Gaza.
Photo Credit: cspanvideo.org
At least some members of the U.S. congress finally realized that if weapons belonging to Hamas were found in UNRWA facilities, questions need to be asked of UNRWA employees as to how those weapons got there, who put them there, who observed them, what – if anything – was done to remove them (or to keep them there), along with other pertinent and essential lines of inquiry.
U.S. senators Mark Kirk (R-IL), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), sent a letter last week to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, demanding an investigation into the actions of the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) during the fighting in Gaza.
The senators used very strong language to condemn the agency on several different bases.
First, the discovery, on three different occasions, of Hamas weapons in UNRWA facilities, whereupon the weapons were returned to the terrorist organization, Hamas.
Second, UNRWA has repeatedly issued statements condemning Israel and ignoring the wrongdoing of Hamas.
And third, the senators pointed out the very troubling close affiliation between Hamas and UNRWA, the irrefutable proof of which was the election of 25 Hamas candidates were voted onto the 27 member UNRWA ‘s workers’ union board in 2012.
Next, the senators explained why they are convinced it is appropriate for them to demand such an investigation into UNRWA: we pay for it! The United States contributed $294 million in 2013. It is the single largest donor to UNRWA. Since 1950, more than $5 billion U.S. taxpayers’ dollars were funneled into UNRWA.
Senator Mark Kirk is a member of the Senate Appropriations sub-committee which has jurisdiction over the Department of State, as well as U.S. contributions to U.N. activities. Kirk said in a statement posted on his website:
I am demanding a credible and independent assessment of UNRWA’s actions during this crisis. Given UNRWA’s ties to terrorism in the past, U.S. taxpayers deserve immediate answers and full transparency regarding their intentions and actions. The State Department must make clear to the U.N. that it need to take all necessary steps to prevent Hamas from using taxpayer-funded property to launch attacks against our allies.
Senator Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, added:
When leaders and organizations of the United Nations blur the clear distinction between a nation-state defending itself and a terrorist organization attempting to murder civilians, Americans take note. When an organization funded in part by the U.S. suggests that the two are morally equivalent, U.S. taxpayers take note. Israel is undertaking extraordinary efforts to avoid civilian casualties while Hamas cynically uses other Palestinians as human shields and deliberately attempts to kill Israeli civilians. U.N. resources and personnel cannot be complicit in Hamas’ violent terrorist actions.
Senator Marco Rubio is also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rubio had the following to say:
As the U.N.’s leading source of funding, American taxpayers will not tolerate the use of U.N. facilities by terrorists to stage attacks against our allies. We know Hamas has been using civilians as human shields and stores its weapons and fighters in civilian buildings, but for the U.N. to stand idly by while Hamas attacks Israel from its facilities is an outrage. This is the latest example of why the U.S. needs to bring greater transparency and accountability to the U.N. by pursuing reform of its programs and institutions.
The text of the letter the senators sent to Secretary of State Kerry:
Dear Secretary Kerry,
We write to express our profound concern with the troubling role the United Nations Refugee and Work Agency (UNRWA) has played during the ongoing crisis in Gaza, including multiple instances of weapons found at UNRWA schools as well as one-sided statements from UNRWA leadership that unjustly condemn Israel. For instance, on July 14, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl stated that Israeli security forces are acting “contrary to international humanitarian law” and also called Israel’s Gaza blockade “illegal.”
As you know, UNRWA admitted on July 17, July 22nd, and July 30th that it found rockets belonging to Hamas on its property. We commend UNRWA’s quick condemnation of these incidents, but are concerned with the ultimate fate of these rockets, which UNRWA claimed to have turned over to the “local authorities” or have gone missing. We fear that this means these rockets may have found their way back into Hamas’ hands.
We urge the State Department to launch an independent investigation into these incidents and to call on the United Nations leadership to hold UNRWA accountable, including by reprimanding or dismissing the UNRWA staff responsible as appropriate, as well as asking the U.N. to ensure that these incidents never take place again.
In the course of your investigation, we ask you to examine the fate of these rockets, what measures the U.N. took to secure UNRWA property, and how the U.S. intends to work with the U.N. to make sure incidents like these are never repeated.
As you know, the United States is the largest donor to UNRWA and has contributed almost $5 billion to the organization since 1950. The United States taxpayers deserve to know if UNRWA is fulfilling its mission or taking sides in this tragic conflict.
We look forward to your reply,
Sincerely,
Now that the strong statements have been made and a letter from three members of senate committees with jurisdiction over the State Department and the U.N. has been sent to the secretary of state, it behooves Israel’s supporters to demand follow-through.
The other tunnel threat – from the North
August 7, 2014The other tunnel threat – from the North – by anneinpt | Anne’s Opinions
Shh! We’re digging!
The menace of Hamas’s terror tunnels is now well-known not only in Israel, but throughout the world. During Operation Protective Edge the IDF discovered and destroyed 32 tunnels and at least twice as many shafts.
The news of all these discoveries has obscured a similarly dangerous (or even more dangerous) threat of tunnels in the north of Israel, built by Hezbollah and leading from Lebanon into Israel. Tunnels within Lebanon were discovered and are well-known to the IDF, and were already confronted in the Second Lebanon War in 2006. But after the discovery of the Hamas tunnels reaching far into Israel, we must assume that Hezbollah too has been using these past years to build their own terror tunnels into Israel for the same dastardly purpose.
Here is a Facebook post (via Zvi) which I have translated from Hebrew into English, and it is a terrifying must-read for all of us. The author recommends flooding the social media with any evidence and testimony that we have in order to keep this threat at the top of the national agenda, in order that the Government doesn’t ignore it like it did with the Hamas tunnels, and deals with the danger forthwith.
A female resident of Zar’it, (a city close to the northern border) said on the Dan Shilon program that for a long time now she had been hearing digging sounds under the house.
When she reported this, she and other residents of the North who were hearing drilling and excavation mainly at night were sent to take tranquilizers.
She described how she is able to see, in Lebanese territory, cement trucks and heavy construction equipment entering under greenhouses but cannot see anything being built above ground. She told how her whole house is shaking, objects are moving and falling ..
This is just one testimony amongst many others of residents and soldiers along the northern border who have been hearing the sound of digging for years!
I personally heard many testimonies of IDF soldiers who served on the northern border, who heard excavations, who reported to their superiors and nothing was done. They have long been released!
What we went through with Hamas in Gaza is child’s play compared to what awaits us in the north with Hezbollah.
People of Israel, wake up!
We must not leave the residents of the north alone with this threat.
Hamas is the son and the student of Hezbollah when it comes to fighting methods and tunneling theory …
The tunnels in the north are much larger and much more dangerous.
What’s the matter with us? Are we afraid of confrontation? Have we closed our eyes?? If it’s quiet over there, what is not clear? They’re simply digging ..
The Israeli government is requested to act immediately to defend the northern communities, to locate tunnels in the north too, and to work on the assumption that the tunnels already exist beneath communities.
If the terrorists manage to infiltrate motorcycles and vehicles through these tunnels, this terrorism will reach the center and anywhere else in the country in a snap .
We’re talking about a strategic threat of the highest order to security of Israeli citizens.
We have to prevent an attack from the tunnels which could be carried out any day.
A Golani soldier in a Hezbollah bunker in Lebanon (archive photo)
The residents of the north must be evacuated, especially those in whose localities digging sounds have been reported. Alternatively large forces must be stationed there to keep guard. Access roads to the center of the country must be closed; serious checks to detect tunnels must be carried out and their destruction must be ensured without delay.
We must not sit back and allow the Gaza tunnels failure to repeat itself and allow them to carry out their plans for Rosh Hashana, God forbid ..
In theory and practically, it is possible that after years of digging with electrical excavation tools into the rock and mountainside, there is beneath us a terror city equipped with billions in Iranian and Syrian funding terrorism and with many arms leading into bases and various localities.
I will expand on what has been said, that it is even possible that the (useless) dribble of Hamas launches to the Gaza periphery are intended to draw our attention to Gaza, to concentrate our forces there and thus our attention will be distracted, and we won’t have the chance to deal with the real threat – the North.
This is an old tactic of shoplifters who come in pairs. One asks the seller with questions and the other steals undisturbed ..
Have I scared you? I’m scared too! Let us all work together. We can do something.
So what can be done?
This is where the author suggests sharing any evidence on the various social media:
* If you have photographic evidence of anything (how your furniture shakes or moves, photos of suspicious excavation sites, your own photographic evidence ..) flood the social media networks (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) with them
* If you are residents of the north or you served there and you witnessed the sounds of digging, share your experiences in the comments here.
*If you want to remain anonymous, contact me via chat and send me your testimony and I’ll enter it as a response under this status (anonymously of course).
* If there are any professionals here, geologists, seismologists, acoustics engineers, experts and those knowledgeable about detecting tunnels, Including academics with appropriate equipment to perform the tests, who are willing to volunteer to go to the homes of residents who hear the digging, please send me your details privately and we will work to bring professional opinions and distribute them until the earth shakes!. This is a Tzav 8, an emergency call-up., this is your hour!
We must not let this the issue drop off the agenda and we have to demand attention to it from our government.
In matters such as this the power of an individual is limited. But all of us together have enormous power to change priorities.
All of us massed together have the power to raise such issues on the public agenda and not allow our government to bury their heads in the sand any more.
Here is a documentary broadcast on Channel 10 five years ago. Mumi Biton, a resident of a northern community, heard sounds of excavations. Channel 10 brought in an acoustics engineer. He checked and unequivocally stated that there was digging underground. With machines. This was five years ago! Watch the video. It’s only three minutes.
The mayor of Kiryat Shmona sent a letter to the Minister of Defence in which he wrote “From the beginning of the operation, I started getting calls from residents living near the Lebanese border, claiming that they hear noises under the ground” Here is the article in the Algemeiner. [I changed the URL because the Walla one quoted in the post doesn’t link to the letter. Also, this link is in English. -Ed.]
And if that is not enough for you and you want to specific detailed information about the quality and specification of the tunnels that they built, go here: Calacalist article about the tunnels.
Beneath the above report there are comments from readers with firsthand evidence they have heard in the past, and are currently hearing, the sound of digging.
You are invited to share this post and sign the petition to stop the tunnels.
And I’ll sign off with the words of the song: “Oh my native country .. you are heading to disaster”
Please spread this story far and wide. As Alona Elman wrote, we need to keep this issue on the national agenda in order for the government and the IDF to deal with it before disaster strikes.
WarSclerotic 
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