While the UN Secretary General says he is”alarmed,” Hamas vowed to carry on with its war against Israel, at all cost.
By: AP and World Israel News Staff
Inside a tunnel that runs into Gaza. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
A senior leader of Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group that rules Gaza, says its terrorists continue to build attack tunnels into Israel and prepare for another confrontation.
Ismail Haniyeh said Friday that terrorists dig tunnels and test rockets to attack Israel “every day.”
He spoke at the funeral of seven terrorists who died this week when a tunnel from Gaza to Israel collapsed while they were repairing it.
Hamas has built a sophisticated network of tunnels that it has used to penetrate Israel to carry out terrorist attacks on civilians and soldiers. Israel destroyed most of the tunnels during the Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, but Hamas has since worked vigorously to rebuild the network, many times at the expense of Gazans from whom they steal building materials which they use for their military build-up.
Israeli media has reported that people living in communities near the border with Gaza have complained to authorities after hearing tunneling sounds under their homes.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated he was “alarmed” by Hamas’ announcement.
“The Secretary-General is alarmed by recent statements from the Hamas leadership in Gaza about the group’s intention to continue building tunnels and firing rockets at Israel,” Ban said in a statement on Saturday.
“Such statements and actions put at risk reconstruction, humanitarian and development efforts by the international community and Palestinian and Israeli authorities. They also do a serious disservice to the long-suffering people of Gaza,” he added.
Saying that “most people in Gaza and residents of southern Israel are interested in peace and developing the region,” he said that the UN “must do all we can in order to achieve this goal.”
“The Secretary-General reiterates his condemnation of terrorism in all its manifestations,” the statement concluded.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, demanded that Ban remain clear and sharply consistent when criticizing terrorism against Israel.
“Hamas is a murderous terror organization and its denouncement by the Secretary-General is a necessary step in reality,” Danon stated. “The UN must be a significant factor in the fight against terror and the Secretary-General must be a sharp, clear, and uncompromising voice about terror wherever it may be.”
Just last Wednesday, Danon cited the UN Security Council for its lack of condemnation of terrorism against Israel, while condemning it everywhere else.