Human Shields: Gaza rocket site in civilian areas. Illustrative. Photo Courtesy of IDF Spokesperson
While the world is interested in seeing Gaza be rebuilt for the benefit of the Palestinian civilians there, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin cautioned that careless generosity could result in something far different. Instead of rebuilding schools, Hamas terrorists in Gaza could use the reconstruction funds to rebuild its terror network.
“The reconstruction of Gaza is one of our interests as much as it is of the all the free world,” Rivlin was quoted by his office as saying in a press release. “The rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza should go along with the demilitarization of Gaza because otherwise we can see the next round in no time because the Hamas people once again will spend all the money that the whole world is trying to help them with in order to reconstruct Gaza, and will put it into military aims and the ability to attack Israel once again.”
History has tragically born out Rivlin’s warning to be true. Construction materials have entered into Gaza ostensibly to help the populace there, but Hamas had different plans: dozens of terror tunnels stretching from Gaza to Israel to be used in murders and kidnappings.
The IDF Spokeperson’s Twitter feed pointed out that the tunnels cost millions of dollars to build. With those resources, Gaza could have built 19 medical clinics, six schools, or 86 homes—for the cost of just one of the pricey terror tunnels that were built instead.
Israel destroyed most, if not all, of the tunnels in the latest war with Gaza, but it came at the cost of Israeli lives.
Hamas, notably, rejected again Israel’s call to disarm just last Friday. The Ma’an News Agency said that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called their weapons “sacred.”
In the past, Hamas has argued that violence is the best means towards their goals vis-à-vis Israel. Those goals ultimately include conquering all of Israel, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, according to past comments from Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal.
To that end, Hamas has actually launched attacks at Israel from near schools and hidden weapons in mosques, all while managing to develop even more dangerous arms in its fight with Israel.
In light of that, Israel is concerned that if there is another round with Hamas, it could be even worse than the last one, which lasted seven weeks.
Said Rivlin of the danger of Hamas rebuilding its terror infrastructure, “We can come to a dead-end once again and we could find ourselves in a very, very serious situation.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, September 7, 2014)