IDF warns Gazans to stop digging tunnels for Hamas

Israel has warned Gaza’s civilians to avoid working for Hamas and stop digging tunnels for the terror organization, hinting that not all tunnel collapses are accidents.

The IDF’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the unit responsible for implementing government policy in Judea and Samaria and vis-à-vis the Gaza Strip, is urging the citizens of Gaza to cease their digging of terror tunnels in Hamas’ service.

In a post published on COGAT’s Facebook page in Arabic on Wednesday, the unit noting that over 30 Palestinians were killed in the past two years during activities connected with digging tunnels.

“Anyone nearing the tunnels, digging or aiding their construction is sealing their fate,” COGAT warned.

The post also hinted to the fact that not all fatal tunnel collapses were “work accidents.”

Egyptian operations against the tunnels and possible Israeli involvement are believed to be causes for the tunnel collapses.

Just this week, two Palestinians were killed in Gaza when the terror tunnels they were working in collapsed.

The Hamas terror organization employs over 1,000 residents of Gaza to dig its cross-border tunnels, and is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly in wages. Each digger receives $300-400 a month.

Hamas has built a sophisticated network of tunnels that it has used to penetrate Israel to carry out terrorist attacks against civilians and soldiers and smuggle goods and weapons in and out of Gaza through the Sinai Peninsula.

The IDF destroyed most of the tunnels during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, but Hamas has since been working vigorously to rebuild the network, and the IDF has exposed several of them.

By: World Israel News Staff