A member of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas died Friday when a smuggling tunnel collapsed in the Gaza Strip near the Israeli border, Hamas and medical sources said.
The sources did not say why the tunnel, located in eastern Shejaiya in northern Gaza, collapsed.
A statement from Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of de facto Gaza rulers Hamas, said a member was killed in the collapse of "a resistance tunnel".
Hamas has created a network of underground tunnels that enable the movement of arms and fighters throughout the coastal Palestinian territory. Some extend into Israel, and were used to carry out attacks during the July-August 2014 war with the Jewish state.
Shujaiyeh? Isn't that the place that Gaza leaders parade reporters and diplomats around to prove that Gazans haven't rebuilt their homes?Clearly there is some rebuilding going on!
Now, if you want to build underground bunkers and tunnels, wouldn't it be so much easier to do it before the reconstruction takes place above ground?
It is obvious that Hamas uses the neighborhood as a hub of operations, which is the entire reason it was a major target for the IDF. But now it serves an additional purpose of being a propaganda tool.
This is yet another one of those connections that reporters are paid to notice, but instead they go out of their way to ignore them. Hamas building terror bunkers and kidnap tunnels directly beneath the rubble-strewn neighborhood that they love to photograph as evidence of Israeli atrocities just doesn't register as relevant to their lazy "narrative."
Notice how AFP calls these "smuggling tunnels." Even Hamas doesn't claim it is used for smuggling, but for terror. (No one is smuggling any items from Israel.)
The Al Qassam Brigades website says that he was working in "tunnels of pride and dignity to be stationed at the mouths of the homeland" - which sure sounds like this tunnel was meant to go to Israel.
Anyway...time to hand out the candy.
(More in my next post.)