Hamas terror tunnels built with stolen cement

Israel’s recent discovery of a sophisticated tunnel entering Israeli territory from Gaza confirms what Hamas itself has been bragging about for months: that the terror group has been hard at work building multiple attack tunnels into Israel. Sadly, this is just the latest example of Hamas stealing materials—primarily cement—provided by the international community as aid for the Palestinian people. This incident should remind policymakers that Canada’s current approach of funding Palestinian projects through the Representative Office of Canada in Ramallah is the right one. Just as important, it should serve as a warning of the dangers of funding organizations—including the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA)—that operate in Gaza and have, in the past, seen their aid misappropriated by Hamas. The theft of humanitarian goods for Hamas tunnels is all the more worrisome given that the tunnels risk reigniting the conflict, endangering Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike. According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), during the 2014 Gaza war, Israel discovered 32 tunnels, 14 of which stretched under the Gaza border into Israel, ending dangerously close to Israeli villages. As far back as 2006, one such tunnel facilitated the kidnapping on Israeli soil of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In each of 2012, 2013, and 2014 (before the war), the IDF uncovered other Hamas tunnels into Israel, evidence that Hamas was determined to kill or capture not only soldiers but also Israeli civilians. The very idea that Hamas might have already built a tunnel under an Israeli farming community, a kindergarten, or a communal dining hall is in and of itself terrifying to Israeli residents near Gaza. Fearful for their families’ safety, Israeli residents have demanded that the Israeli government do more to protect them, not only from rockets and mortars routinely shot at them over many years but also—and even more urgently—from the growing threat of Hamas’ attack tunnels. Only in mid-April, when Israeli security forces discovered yet another tunnel penetrating Israel, was it announced that a high-tech device helped in the discovery. Seizing on Israeli security concerns, Hamas has boasted about their accelerated tunnel activity, to which they have devoted huge resources, both financial and human. Iranian-backed Hezbollah officials have acted as advisors, and Iran has provided funding and material assistance to Hamas’ tunnel construction. The Israeli government reported that the Klos-C cargo ship seized in March 2014 carrying a huge, illegal store of Iranian weapons bound for Gaza also carried approximately 2,000 tons of cement. The IDF determined that, in just the 14 Hamas tunnels penetrating into Israel in 2014, Hamas had used 800,000 tons of cement. That’s a quantity sufficient to help build not one 160-storey Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the world’s tallest building, but seven of them. Yet these 14 tunnels represent only a small fraction of the total tunnel network permeating large areas of Gaza’s underground world, which also includes bunkers and concrete missile silos. Not to be overlooked is the cost incurred by Gaza’s nearly two million civilians. Instead of building housing, schools, and hospitals for the people Hamas purports to govern, it diverts precious resources to its obsessive, ideologically-driven campaign to destroy Israel. Hamas’s anti-Israel fixation is a tragedy primarily for ordinary Gazans. According to a recent World Bank report, only nine percent of the thousands of Gazan homes damaged or destroyed in 2014 have been rebuilt. Most of the cement required has been diverted by Hamas for yet more tunnels—while hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s civilians languish. Add to this a bitter irony: each week, in coordination with the UN, Israel sends hundreds of trucks into Gaza with food, medicine, and other supplies required to sustain a semblance of normal life and certainly to avert a humanitarian crisis. Under the promise that international supervision would ensure its use for home reconstruction, Israel has even provided cement. Only after determining that the cement was indeed diverted for tunnel construction did Israel—while maintaining the delivery of other goods—withhold further cement shipments. For the international community, there is an imperative to encourage Palestinian moderation, urge Palestinian leaders to prepare their people for coexistence with Israelis, and provide economic aid that actually benefits Palestinians. Foremost, the international community must ensure that resources are not diverted and NGOs are not abused by Hamas—or indeed by any group that opposes peace and threatens to destroy lives on both sides. Ottawa was right to channel funding for Palestinian aid projects through Canada’s representative office in Ramallah and should continue to avoid funding institutions, including UNRWA, holding dismal records for accountability or for delivering real benefit to the Palestinian people.

Hamas terror tunnels built with stolen cement

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Hamas terror tunnels built with stolen cement

Canada should continue funding aid projects through secure and accountable representative office in Ramallah.

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