Israel silent while Hamas digs tunnels
Before getting into another round of fighting in Gaza, Israel must use its nonmilitary tools to stop the tunnel digging that Hamas has continued to pursue so vigorously.
“Hamas has gone back to digging tunnels, and it is likely that at least one of them has even crossed the border,” Knesset member and member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Omer Bar-Lev said May 17. “If I were the defense minister, I would instruct the Israel Defense Forces to launch an operation tonight to destroy those rebuilt tunnels.”
The Israeli defense establishment and Israeli decision-makers have been well aware for many months of Hamas' rebuilding of the tunnels that were destroyed during Operation Protective Edge in August 2014. Hamas is not trying to hide its flagship project and has been pursuing it vigorously. The organization’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has invested immense resources in the project, while ignoring the deplorable condition of the population in the Gaza Strip, where things have worsened since last summer’s operation and the closing of the border with Egypt in December 2014.
