Think the UN Human Rights organizations will notice these things happening?
Hamas has seized control of all the smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza and has been moving additional arms into the Strip since Operation Cast Lead ended on Sunday morning.
[…] The tunnels in Rafah are usually run by local Palestinian clans, and Hamas’s decision to take control is believed to be part of the group’s attempts to reestablish its regime in Gaza. Hamas can now decide what is smuggled into the Strip and give priority to weapons and explosives.
[…] Also on Wednesday, Hamas commandeered the trucks carrying humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip as part of its effort to show that it is providing for the Palestinian people.
Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that Hamas had also taken over a mental hospital in Gaza City and had kicked out the patients to use the facility as a jail for Fatah supporters.
Really, just when you think they can’t get any lower, Hamas manages to prove you wrong.
And of course, this is also a fact that won’t get very high play in the non-Israeli media:
Some of the tunnels were not destroyed – like the one that was filmed by foreign media on Wednesday – out of humanitarian considerations.
Several tunnels have pipes that transfer fuel from Sinai to Gaza. The concern in the IDF was that if it bombed such a tunnel, a huge explosion would result – possibly also on the Egyptian side – and civilian casualties.
The IDF was also concerned that if a fuel tunnel were bombed, Hamas would respond by attacking the Nahal Oz fuel depot where there are gas canisters and fuel tankers, which if detonated would cause major collateral damage in Gaza and Israel.
Of course they would have retaliated by attacking Nahal Oz. They’ve already tried to blow it up, and thankfully, failed.
If any of my readers finds a non-Israeli source that discusses the Hamas takeover of all the tunnels, send me a link. I’m betting this goes completely unnoticed by all the big guns in the MSM.
Iron Rule.
Since the quality of the materials in this case are of suspect origin and shoddy in its known make-up, I’d say it will be tossed in the ocean one of these days.