Posted on 07/25/2014 2:08:48 AM PDT by Star Traveler
Hamas’s attack tunnels are now recognized as a major danger, but Israel would have to reconquer Gaza to make sure they aren’t rebuilt, and that would cause untenable losses.
The tunnels inside Gaza and under the Israeli border are not a secret project Hamas ran under the noses of Israel and the Palestinian public. Every child in Gaza, like every junior officer in IDF Military Intelligence, knew that, beneath Gaza City and beyond, a network of tunnels was being dug over the past five years, with an investment of millions of dollars. In other words, Gaza Underground
Yet the Israeli public was still surprised by the scope of the tunnels when the danger became clear in the past week or two. The Israeli press had reported on the phenomenon, but it appears that Israel’s political leadership — and, to some extent, its security leadership — had preferred to play down the threat. Today, on Day 18 of Operation Protective Edge, the public recognizes the strategic danger.
Hamas’s strategic underground industry didn’t bloom overnight. In order to build 40 “attack tunnels” snaking out from Gaza and under the border (and the number could be slightly higher), Hamas needed significant help, from a large organization or state entity. And not just monetary help, but also professional guidance. Hamas could have used experts from the tunnels dug at Rafah under the Gaza-Egypt border, but those were simpler, and did not demand any extraordinary investment or effort.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
Paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.
Israel singles out Qatar as key Hamas terror sponsor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3184241/posts
http://www.timesofisrael.com/as-it-battles-hamas-israel-singles-out-its-sponsor-qatar/
Gulf emirate is branded the villain behind Hamas belligerence, with PM’s former security adviser saying it funds tunnel diggers and rocket launchers.
President Shimon Peres accused Qatar on Wednesday of becoming “the world’s largest funder of terror” due to its financial support for Hamas in Gaza.
“Qatar does not have the right to send money for rockets and tunnels which are fired at innocent civilians,” the outgoing statesman told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Jerusalem. “Their funding of terror must stop. If they want to build then they should, but they must not be allowed to destroy.”
Qatar’s recently attempted to transfer funds for the salaries of Hamas civil servants in Gaza, following the formation of a Palestinian unity government, but was blocked by the United States, which pressured the Arab Bank not to process them. But former national security adviser Maj. Gen. (res) Yaakov Amidror told The Times of Israel that the emirate’s funding for the organization’s terror apparatus, including tunnel diggers and rocket launchers, has continued unabated.
In Qatari-Backed Trip, UN ‘s Ban Ki-moon Laid Low by Israel’s Peres
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3184274/posts
Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday told United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Israel would not stand by while Qatar, which paid for the UN official’s private flight to the Middle East, continued to finance Hamas militants, and took Ban to task for the two UN-run schools found to be housing Hamas rockets in Gaza.
In his last full day in office, Peres, a historically dovish leader, struck a defiant tone in a statement delivered to the media after meeting Ban at the President’s Residence, in Jerusalem.
“Qatar does not have the right to send money for rockets and tunnels which are fired at innocent civilians,” Peres said. “Their funding of terror the must stop.”
Newsweek‘s Benny Avni reported on Monday that the Qatari government paid for the UN Secretary General’s flight through the Middle East, where his first stop on Sunday was Doha, where he denounced Israel’s Operation Protective Edge’s battle in Shuja’iya, a border city that had been overrun by competing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters, and where rockets were hidden in mosques, hospitals, playgrounds and cemeteries connected by tunnels used to infiltrate the Israeli border and attack Kibbutz Nahal Oz a mile away.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-blocked-qatari-funds-intended-for-hamas-employees/
The United States has blocked the transfer of Qatari funds earmarked for the salaries of civil servants hired by Hamas in Gaza, The Times of Israel has learned.
A diplomatic source in the Gulf state, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Qatar had transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to Arab Bank for the salaries of some 44,000 Hamas civil servants. Those civil servants — employed by Hamas in Gaza since its takeover of the Strip in 2007 – were rendered jobless by the unity agreement with Fatah last month.
But the money was never processed by Arab Bank and delivered to Hamas, the source told The Times of Israel, due to pressure from the Americans, who consider Hamas a terror organization.
“This is strange, since funds from Qatar have never been blocked in the past,” the source said, referring to the $400 million aid package pledged by Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa during his visit to Gaza in October 2012.
Hamas’s deputy political bureau chief Moussa Abu Marzouk lambasted Arab Bank for neglecting to process the funds in comments posted on his Facebook page June 28.
These tunnels sound as if they’re much larger than 40”, 40 inches ? Fourty inches is enough to convieniently crawl through. These sound like you can drive through some of them. Like to see some pix on how big these things are.
What the IDF should be doing and hope are, is disabling the equipment used to construct them and sinking every ship load of concrete or construction equipment use to build them comming in there.
Nope, there is technology sufficient to overcome that task. Tunnels stick out like a sore thumb when performing Harmonic resonance measurements.
Not 40 inches but 40 tunnels ... :-) ...
Perhaps you need to contract with the IDF ... :-) ...
from the comments:
Todd Warnick · Top Commenter · Jerusalem, Israel
There are some assumptions that Avi makes in this article that aren’t entirely clear. Would we lose hundreds of soldiers in uprooting Hamas? Why does he think that? We are starting to get to their commanders and their best forces went down in Sajaiyah and now are being defeated/killed/surrendering left and right. As to not taking over Gaza again - at least temporarily until we destroy all the tunnels - it’s not clear that this isn’t on the agenda. See: repeated Lapid and Livni statements. The only thing that might stop us is more incomprehensible pressure from the US - after all, President Obama was the one that twisted our arm and forced us to transfer to Gaza from the Nesher Cement Company 600 tons of cement - dual-use materials that in the end were used solely for building tunnels and terrorist infrastructure. Thank you Mr. President!
Thats great intel. Fred.
Obama had the cement imported, a sign that Obama is micromanaging Hamas agression, and that includes getting Gadaffi’s arsenal of hand held surface to air missiles into Gaza from where Obama had them distributed in Benghazi, the devils own work.
Now the world knows.
To that end, the US is sending $47 mil to Hamas for “humanitarian aid”.
There are many suicidal Israelis who still want to give peace a chance, thus, the assumption.
The assumption does not take into account the reality on the ground where Hamas is suffering one defeat after another as they fall back to the central command city under Gaza city.
A pause or ceasefire would be just to Hamas’ liking when things get too hot. Iran will then rebuild the entire tunnel infrastructure, a new supply of rockets, and possibility a defense against the Merkava 4’s Windbreaker missile defense systems.
Then Hamas, and if Hezbollah is not still tied up in Syria, launch a two pronged attack. Maybe Iran will be able then to step in with a nuke for Tel Aviv.
Hamas must be totally defeated and Gaza occupied by Israeli mil to give peace a chance.
One of Obamas first actions as President was to write a check to Hamas for 900 million dollars,now you know who financed the building of the tunnels
The USA can’t do that with Hamas, as they are listed officially as a foreign terrorist organization. What you’re referring to is humanitarian aid that goes through agencies, like UNRWA for example.
And humanitarian aid is something that Israel lets through and into Gaza (Israel has a blockade around Gaza) and thus Israel has no problem with that.
Just a day or so ago, the Israeli Ambassador was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council and he said that Israel has no fight with the Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but only with Hamas.
Also, see Post #5 for what the USA does with money coming in to Hamas from other countries.
Everyone knows that the Obama administration is one of the key backers of Hamas, since it gave that terrorist organization $900 million in 2009. Just last week Kerry committed another $47 million in taxpayer money, in flagrant violation of US law that forbids funding a Hamas affiliate.
The Wall Street Journal and others have reviled the Obama administration’s support for Hamas, but of course to no avail.
That might be what the USA does. On the other hand, there is what the Ø regime does.
Like the "diplomatic pouch", the Ø regime uses its power in lots of small ways to aid Hamas and hurt Israel. Based on what I've read and heard, UNRWA is a hotbed of terrorists, like the State dept is a hotbed of spies.
Israel should fill those tunnels with a propellant and light them off all at the same time. (Ever see the movie “Caddy Shack”?)
Might break a lot of windows in GAZA but would certainly cause a lot of excitement.
There are fewer and fewer Israelis who want to “give peace a chance”. Netanyahu’s approval is at about 85% as he expands the campaign against Hamas, and even lefties like Lapid and Livni are rejecting calls for a cease-fire and indicating that they could support occupation of Gaza, which of course would entail destruction of Hamas.
Thanks for the reminder about Obama forcing Israel to supply the concrete to Hamas that it used to build its tunnels. I had forgotten about that.
As was posted above the United States has been twisting Israel’s arm to force it to give aid and support to the Hamas terrorist organization. Perhaps the most egregious example is the requirement that Israel supply concrete to Hamas. I have no doubt that both the US and Israel knew that it was being used to build the tunnels, since they both could see what above-ground infrastructure projects were being completed.
Code Pink and Bernadine Dohrn among others have gone to Gaza and met with Hamas during the Obama regime.
Finally a consensus seems to be emerging in Israel that this may be an opportune time to obliterate Hamas, now that the Obama regime is weakened and Egypt and Saudi Arabia are giving their tacit approval.
The USA doesn’t give money or arms to Hamas, but the USA does give humanitarian aid to the People there in Gaza through agencies, such as UNRWA who administers the programs.
And Israel, who controls the good that go into Gaza (they have a blockade around Gaza) does let the goods that the USA sends in through UNRWA go through their checkpoints, as Israel has no problem with that.
What Israel doesn’t let go through their checkpoints or past their blockade are arms and war material going to Hamas.
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