- Feb 5, 2002
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In the wake of its ceasefire agreement with Israel, Hamas has again attempted to paint itself as a struggling resistance movement against an occupying force. After 11 days of fighting, which left more than 250 people dead, Hamas’s co-founder, Mahmoud Zahar, claimed a strategic and a symbolic victory.
‘The new element here is the degree of the resistance movement, in particular in Gaza, to attack the Israeli targets and very important points, including most of the overcrowded areas... the civilian society,’ he told Sky News. ‘So for how long will the Israelis accept that?’
By painting itself as a plucky victim, Hamas is trying to convince the Arab world – and Muslims in the West, like me – that we should be on its side. But the reality is that the terror group’s ever escalating appetite for conflict does nothing to serve the Palestinian cause. While Hamas’s leaders live in the luxury and safety of Qatar, millions of dollars, which should have been used to help Palestinians, has been syphoned off to build the Islamist group’s complex network of tunnels throughout Gaza.
During this latest conflict, the Israel Defence Forces destroyed more than 60 miles of these tunnels, known as the ‘Metro’. ‘They were originally used by Hamas operatives to hide after firing rockets at Israel,’ the IDF explained in a video last week. ‘Hamas connected its smaller tunnels until they became a complex underground system allowing terrorists to hide, train, and transport weapons.’ The IDF noted that the network has been years in the making, after much of it was destroyed in 2014 during ‘Operation Protective Edge’.
Continued below.
Inside Hamas's tunnel complex | The Spectator
‘The new element here is the degree of the resistance movement, in particular in Gaza, to attack the Israeli targets and very important points, including most of the overcrowded areas... the civilian society,’ he told Sky News. ‘So for how long will the Israelis accept that?’
By painting itself as a plucky victim, Hamas is trying to convince the Arab world – and Muslims in the West, like me – that we should be on its side. But the reality is that the terror group’s ever escalating appetite for conflict does nothing to serve the Palestinian cause. While Hamas’s leaders live in the luxury and safety of Qatar, millions of dollars, which should have been used to help Palestinians, has been syphoned off to build the Islamist group’s complex network of tunnels throughout Gaza.
During this latest conflict, the Israel Defence Forces destroyed more than 60 miles of these tunnels, known as the ‘Metro’. ‘They were originally used by Hamas operatives to hide after firing rockets at Israel,’ the IDF explained in a video last week. ‘Hamas connected its smaller tunnels until they became a complex underground system allowing terrorists to hide, train, and transport weapons.’ The IDF noted that the network has been years in the making, after much of it was destroyed in 2014 during ‘Operation Protective Edge’.
Continued below.
Inside Hamas's tunnel complex | The Spectator
