The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas has created a summer tourist destination out of one of its tunnels, which have frequently been used to infiltrate Israel and attack Israelis.
A posted by the the pro-Hamas media outlet Afaq shows a group of boys running through a tunnel. “Afaq media enters a tunnel created by the Qassam Brigades during a weapons exhibition in Shejaiya on the anniversary [of the war],” the text introducing the video says, according to The Times of Israel’s translation. The tunnel is “open to any citizen or media for videos and publishing.”
Israel fought Operation Protective Edge against Hamas to protect its citizens from rocket fire and underground attacks via the tunnels.
Other Gazans have posted photographs of weapons displays alongside the tunnels, as well as summer camp groups participating in tours. Hamas, which is backed by Iran, says that over 50,000 children are enrolled in this year’s camps, which this year have the theme of “Jerusalem Intifada.”
#كتائب_القسام تقيم معرض لأنواع من الأسلحة تملكها المقاومة داخل أحد مخيمات "طلائع التحرير" التي تقيمها في قطاع #غزة pic.twitter.com/lRIxQgUTrp
— 48 الإخبارية (@48nnews) July 20, 2016
Hezbollah, another Iran-backed terrorist group, has similarly has created a museum in southern Lebanon dedicated to touting its “victories” over Israel.
Two recent tunnel collapses in Gaza have killed two members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, bringing the total number of terrorists killed this year in tunnel collapses to 14.
IDF Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai declined to confirm or deny whether Israel had a hand in causing the collapses when asked in March. “God knows,” he said. “I would suggest the residents of the Gaza Strip not to occupy themselves with the tunnels and to get away from them, especially after seeing the results in recent days.”
A Hamas operative who was captured in June after illegally crossing into Israel revealed that the terrorist group’s fighters can travel underground throughout the entirety of Gaza. Two tunnels leading into Israel have been discovered by the IDF since April. The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, says that it has received extensive on the tunnel system from arrested Hamas operatives.
Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, formerly the head of the research division of Israeli military intelligence and later the director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told reporters in May that the discovery of the tunnels was a sign that Hamas was preparing for another war against Israel. He added that the tunnel digging means that “they definitely invest a lot in making the necessary preparations so that in the next round, when they decide to start it, they will be able to inflict the heaviest damage on Israel, including through those tunnels.”
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