Terrorist construction can be dangerous too. Illustrative image of bulldozer. By Joshua Spurlock
The Israelis took out two more Gaza terror tunnels over the weekend, including one that Hamas was trying to rebuild. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the world to know what their aid money to Gaza is really being used to develop: terrorism. “Our policy is to take determined action against any attempt to attack us and to systematically eliminate the infrastructure of terrorist tunnels and thus we will continue,” said Netanyahu on Sunday in comments released by his office. “The time has come for the international community to realize that the assistance funds to Gaza are being buried underground.”
The Prime Minister’s Office Arabic spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, expanded on what Hamas is doing with the millions of dollars received. “These funds are not spent by Hamas on welfare, housing or improving the lives of Palestinians. They are spent on terror tunnels, bunkers, rockets & weapons,” tweeted Gendelman.
The IDF Spokesperson labeled the tunnel as an “offensive terror tunnel” via Twitter—a term used to refer to tunnels designed to infiltrate Israel to conduct terror attacks, such as kidnappings. A separate tweet noted that the tunnel rebuilding efforts were “identified at an early phase.”
Tweeted the IDF Spokesperson, “The attempt to renew the terror tunnel shows that Hamas finds it difficult to accept the collapse of the tunnel project and continues to waste the funds desperately needed for the residents of the Gaza Strip. Hamas remains responsible for everything happening in the Gaza Strip.”
The terror tunnel identification and destruction was done using “precise” intelligence and new technology, IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said in a Twitter post, noting that it was the fourth such tunnel neutralization since November.
The latest tunnel take down comes as the Gaza-Israel conflict is hotter than normal. Multiple explosive devices have been set off along the Gaza security fence in the last week according to Tweets from the IDF Spokesperson, with Israel responding by striking Hamas targets in Gaza.
Regarding the weekend’s tunnel demolition, the IDF Spokesperson tweeted, “The IDF does not wish to escalate the situation, but we stand ready and prepared for a variety of scenarios.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, March 18, 2018)