Gaza City – Israel Intelligence Officials, Leader Of Hamas Weigh In On Tunnels Used During War

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    FILE -  Palestinian fighter from the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, walks inside an underground tunnel in Gaza August 18, 2014. ReutersGaza City – In a recent interview with Vanity Fair Magazine (http://vnty.fr/1tb0til) Israeli Intelligence officials and Khalid Mishal, the leader of Hamas, share insight into the uncovering of an intricate pattern of underground tunnels leading from Gaza into Israel during this past summer’s war during July and August.

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    Israeli intelligence revealed they may have narrowly escaped an attack by Hamas, where insurgents would have entered Israel through the various underground tunnels and killed and or kidnapped as many Israelis as they could.

    Mishal insists that creating the tunnels to kill Israeli citizens was never Hamas’s intention, however, they do target Israeli soldiers and others living on occupied territory.

    In the end, members of Netanyahu’s cabinet say he didn’t do enough to defeat Hamas. A ceasefire did not demilitarize Gaza, and eventually allowed building materials back into Gaza, which some fear will allow the elaborate tunnel-building system to continue.

    According to Shin Bet, Hamas began building tunnels under the Gaza Strip in the early 2000s. In 2006, Hamas used one of the tunnels to kidnap IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. His return five and a half years later was made in a tradeoff of one Israeli for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, proving as one Israeli top official said, “tunnels work.”

    The tunnels also allowed Hamas to smuggle money, supplies and weapons into Gaza from Egypt, send operatives to training in Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Malaysia via Egypt and bring mentors in from Hezbollah to teach people how to create rockets.

    The discovery of a massive tunnel located about 50 feet below the surface at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in 2013, running a mile and a half from the village of Abbasan Al-Saghira in the Gaza Strip to Kibbutz, spurred Israel to stop the transfer of construction materials into Gaza.

    Major General Shlomo Turgeman, head of the I.D.F.’s Southern Command, issued a warning to Hamas: if Hamas used tunnels to employ terror attacks, Israel would “leave Gaza looking very different.”

    By April 2014, Israeli officials firmly believed Hamas was planning an attack on a large scale. “Hamas had a plan,” said Lt. Col. Lerner.

    Mishal maintains the tunnels are defensives ones meant only to defend Hamas, and not harm innocent civilians.

    At the end of the nearly 50-day war in July and August of this year, Israeli military and intelligence sources say state they found and destroyed 32 tunnels within Gaza, 14 of which entered Israel.

    Information taken from Vanity Fair


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    4 Comments
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    Godol-Hador
    Godol-Hador
    9 years ago

    To defend innocent gazans from being kidnapped by israelis…..

    Adddd
    Adddd
    9 years ago

    So it’s true Hamas claims that they didn’t destroy all the tunnels

    savtat
    savtat
    9 years ago

    Maybe someone could explain to Mashaal that if he builds schools, roads and hospitals, his people will reelect him and he could have a real country???? Of course, then the terror funding would stop and that would be no fun for him.

    HeshyEkes
    HeshyEkes
    9 years ago

    During the war, Hamas spokespeople confused the media interviewers when asked about the terror tunnels, by saying that they were for bringing in supplies to the poor beleaguered and blockaded Gazans. Not one interviewer challenged those distortions. Its time that Israel accidentally kills a few hundred thousand Arabs in Gaza or Tehran to stop this madness.