Gaza Again? Hamas Pledges War

March 30, 2016

by: Brian Schrauger, News Bureau Chief, Bridges for Peace

Gaza is ramping up for another war with Israel and openly says so. Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh is pledging to attack and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is pledging a devastating response. As a result, there is talk today in Israel that another Gaza war might be only months away.

Experts in Israel say that Hamas has as many tunnels today as it had just before it started its war with Israel in the summer of 2014. Spending upward of US $140 million per year since that conflict ended less than two years ago, tunnel reconstruction has been proceeding at a fast pace.

After seven tunnel workers were killed in a collapsed tunnel, Haniyeh, said that his party was “preparing for confrontation with the Zionist enemy.”  Raising his right hand and shaking an extended index finger, he said, “Here, east of Gaza City, heroes underground are digging into the rock and building tunnels. And west of Gaza, heroes are experimenting with rockets every day.” There are, he boasted, “preparations underground in tunnels and above ground, in the air, by rockets.” Their purpose, he said, is “liberation for Palestine and Jerusalem and prisoners.”

Israeli families who live near Gaza take the threat seriously. Last week Times of Israel reporter Tamar Pileggi wrote that “residents of Moshav Pri Gan, a community adjacent to the Gaza border, said that tunnel digging into Israel from the Hamas-run territory has come so close to their homes that it has caused their floors to shake.”

 

Photo Credit: Sadik Gulec/shutterstock.com