Hamas Ready for Fresh Conflict with Israel, Says Gaza Chief
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Hamas is ready for a new confrontation with Israel thanks in part to the reconstruction of tunnels to fight the Jewish state, the Islamist Palestinian movement's Gaza chief said on Friday.
Ismail Haniya said the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades -- Hamas's military wing -- were preparing "for any future clashes with the Zionist (Israeli) enemy".
"East of Gaza City, underground heroes build tunnels" along the border with Israel, while west of the city they are "testing rockets every day," said Haniya.
He was speaking to thousands of mourners gathered at the Great Omari Mosque in Gaza City for the funeral of seven Al-Qassam fighters killed this week in a tunnel collapse.
Al-Qassam Brigades said the seven had been preparing "for fighting with the enemy".
Wrapped in green Hamas flags, the seven bodies were carried to the mosque while crowds chanted slogans calling for violence against Israel.
In a rare move, several Hamas chiefs went to the cemetery located near the border with Israel to place flowers by the graves of the seven fighters.
Haniya described the tunnels as a "strategic weapons" against Israel, and said Hamas fighters are also training and acquiring "all the means to fight and resist".
Israel has been accusing Hamas of rebuilding tunnels destroyed during the 2014 Gaza war with the aim of launching fresh attacks against it.
The 50-day war in July-August 2014 killed 2,200 Palestinians, 73 people on the Israeli side, and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The tunnels have been used in the past to store weapons or stage attacks.
In June 2006, a group of Hamas fighters and other militants entered Israel through a cross-border tunnel, seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and took him back to Gaza.
He was then held for five years and eventually returned in a prisoner exchange which saw over 1,000 Palestinians released.
Gaza has remained largely calm since a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks began in October in the West Bank, Jerusalem and across Israel, though a number of people have been killed by Israeli forces during violent protests along the Gaza border.
29 January 2016, 19:26
04
It is ill advised Mr. Haniya. While your people and fighters get slaughtered by the Chosen Ones, your leaders and politicians are hiding in Qatar. First and foremost, you need to get rid of your sectarian name
"Islamic Palestinian Movement" and then you need to join the ranks of other moderate Palestinians and become one entity with one voice.
30 January 2016, 10:26
01
What a genius this Haniyyeh is! But you know what other genius boasted of having powerful strategic weapons that would be able of resisting and fighting any enemy? Saddam Hussein. Remember how that ended? So shut the eff up and focus the flow of your cement into rebuilding people's houses instead.
30 January 2016, 13:30
00
Now we can all see how the Hamas "Government" in Gaza with Hanniyah at its head, really takes care of the population.
Instead of having all the cement imported going to rebuilding houses for the population, he prefers to have them continue living in tents during the cold winter.
Instead of investing all the monies donated to the Gaza "Government" going towards building up the infrastructure and thus improving the lives of the population, he prefers to spend it all on building tunnels, smuggling in arms and having the heirarcy living in style in Qatar.
I hope that he has an escape plan ready, because if he starts another war with Israel, and Israeli civilians are killed, then I for one wouldn't want to be in his shoes.
31 January 2016, 04:05
00
The Gulf states and KSA need to begin putting some cash away for the next Gaza reconstruction telethon. With oil prices low it is best for those Contributing States to save up gradually rather than try to pay all at once after the next war.
