Thoughts on Tunnels in Gaza:
Yesterday, Dan and I were listening to an interview on NPR with a Christian Science Monitor reporter who had gone into the tunnels in Gaza. That report is here.
I had always heard that Palestinians used these tunnels only to smuggle weapons, but it appears that they use them as a major food supply source as well:
BLOCK: You say maybe weapons. But Israel has been quite emphatic that weapons are absolutely coming through shipped from Iran and from Syria.
Mr. MURPHY: Well, I do want to emphasize that I haven’t been there in quite some time. It’s possible that this has changed. But after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah, they took all Fatah’s weapons which had been supplied by the U.S. more or less in Egypt. So, a lot of the tunnel smugglers at that time were telling me that unfortunately, as far as they’re concerned, they’re just businessmen. They’re capitalists red in tooth and claw, that the gun business wasn’t a good business anymore. Gaza quite simply was awash in weapons and they were shifting to other uses. I’m sure that a lot of explosives do move in and out of those tunnels from Egypt that are used to make the rockets that are fired in Israel, and so forth. But I do think that the level of weapons that are coming through those tunnels and the notion that if those tunnels are shut, there would be no weapons in Gaza is at best overstated.
I decided to investigate. I found this very well-produced independent video documenting the development of these tunnels.
It clearly states that they smuggle weapons in through the tunnels, but also that they are a major source food and medicine in light of the blockade against Hamas. Additionally, the Egyptians also sometimes block the tunnels, possibly because by doing so they ensure stability with Israel.
Some have said that, while Hamas is a terrorist organization, it brings stability by building infrastructure, roads, and schools for the people in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is particularly popular among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, though it also has a following in the West Bank, and to a lesser extent in other Middle Eastern countries. Since its formation in 1987, Hamas has conducted numerous social, political, and military actions. Its popularity stems in part from its welfare and social services to Palestinians in the occupied territories, including school and hospital construction. The group devotes much of its estimated $70 million annual budget to an extensive social services network, running many relief and education programs, and funds schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, soup kitchens, and sports leagues. According to the Israeli scholar Reuven Paz “approximately 90 percent of the organization’s work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities”.[96]
However, the other side of the coin is that Hamas, by making the destruction of Israel its mission statement, it also uses civilians as a human shields, such as in this video, where it shoots mortars from the UNRW school that was bombed a couple days ago: and created an international outcry when clearly Hamas members were hiding there.
Obviously the situation is complicated, but it seems that, despite all the good Hamas has caused to the Palestinian people, it has brought much more harm in the form of deaths because Israeli soldiers were targeting Hamas members that hid in civilian houses just for the propaganda value and by calling itself to the destruction of Israel, closed all means of food supply other than the tunnels via nations’ boycott of the group.
Your thoughts?
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You should read “Son of Hamas” by Mosab Hassan Yousef.
It’s a quick read and a unique look into what an ex-Hamas member sees when he looks at his countrymen, and his family (his father is a founder of Hamas)