Another Hamas Militant Reportedly Killed in Tunnel Collapse

Medical sources said that one of the local Palestinian workers was found dead in one of the tunnels in the southern Gaza town of Rafah that collapsed Monday morning.

Nine other Palestinians died in two unrelated tunnel collapses in the past two weeks, all of them members of the Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Hamas Islamist movement which controls Gaza. A large number of tunnels have also been used to smuggle essential lifegoods and other products into the Strip due to an ongoing Israeli blockade of many goods.

On Tuesday, Eizenkot called combating the Gaza tunnel threat the top priority for the IDF in the coming year. It quoted an Al Jazeera report that said that by August 2014 as many as 400 had been killed in the tunnels.

In December 2014, al-Qassam Brigades formed a special tunnel unit responsible for digging and equipping tunnels and training fighters to use them.

Netanyahu said, “If we were attacked through these tunnels that are stretched from the Gaza Strip, we will respond by very great force against Hamas, and stronger than what had been used in the last war”.

It is reportedly the first time that Hamas has sentenced one of its own members to death following a military trial, and was criticised by Human Rights Watch’s Israel/Palestine director Sari Bashi, who said it was “another extra-judicial killing by forces linked to Hamas”, Israel National News reported.

Hossein Jaberi Ansari, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, reiterated support for the Palestinian resistance group on February 8 after a report by a Saudi-owned newspaper said Iran hasn’t provided money or resources to Hamas since the Gaza War.

Iran itself is a listed state sponsor of terrorism and has always been accused of supporting terrorist groups across the the Middle East, including Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are considered Israeli enemies.

Ibrahim added, “Hamas believes it has succeeded during the recent war in changing the course of the war after using the tunnels to carry out military operations against Israeli targets, soldiers and military equipment during the ground offensive”.

Palestinian Hamas militants take part in a parade to mark the 11th anniversary of the Israeli assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza city, on March 22, 2015.