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Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

mwi.westpoint.edu

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Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#2
Someone brought up recently that the UK used tunnels to house military infrastructure during WWII, specifically they converted some tube stations and other things to military command centres, and some of those centres still operate.

https://twitter.com/Alonso_GD/status/1747929379869540802

In the Israeli media, there is rumours from families of hostages that some hostages are dying from poison gases being pumped into the tunnels:

https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-782544

Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#3
Unfortunately the world did nothing in the proceeding ~15 years. Imagine what Gaza could look like, and how improved the lives of Palestinians could be, if that $1B were spent on schools, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure.

It's shocking to me that anyone thinks of Hamas as anything but a terrorist organization and ruthless regime.

Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#4

Unfortunately the world did nothing in the proceeding ~15 years. Imagine what Gaza could look like, and how improved the lives of Palestinians could be, if that $1B were spent on schools, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure. It's shocking to me that anyone thinks of Hamas as anything but a terrorist organization and ruthless regime.

Actually UNWRA funding was spend the money on schools. A majority of now them damaged or destroyed.

But there was a secondary non-UN source of funds via Qatar directly to Hamas. Thus funding source was approved and encouraged by Netanyahu. Netanyahu actually empowered and transferred money to Hamas, while disempowering moderates because he felt that was the best way to ensure there was never a 2 state solution. Read it here in the Israeli press:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up...

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/why-netanyahu-bolste...

You should educate yourself on what is actually going on, rather than repeating tropes.

Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#5
post #4

Unfortunately the world did nothing in the proceeding ~15 years. Imagine what Gaza could look like, and how improved the lives of Palestinians could be, if that $1B were spent on schools, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure. It's shocking to me that anyone thinks of Hamas as anything but a terrorist organization and ruthless regime.

Actually UNWRA funding was spend the money on schools. A majority of now them damaged or destroyed. But there was a secondary non-UN source of funds via Qatar directly to Hamas. Thus funding source was approved and encouraged by Netanyahu. Netanyahu actually empowered and transferred money to Hamas, while disempowering moderates because he felt that was the best way to ensure there was never a 2 state solution. Read…

The idea that Netanyahu is responsible for Hamas' popularity is false. Yes, Israel has played Hamas off against the PA, yes that was a very bad move, but it's not the reason Palestinians prefer Hamas to the PA. Money doesn't explain everything.

Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#6

Unfortunately the world did nothing in the proceeding ~15 years. Imagine what Gaza could look like, and how improved the lives of Palestinians could be, if that $1B were spent on schools, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure. It's shocking to me that anyone thinks of Hamas as anything but a terrorist organization and ruthless regime.

> It's shocking to me that anyone thinks of Hamas as anything but a terrorist organization and ruthless regime.

Hamas is more than that. It formed a government that provided services to Gazans. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which won the 2012 election in Egypt on the same grounds: the Muslim Brotherhood was seen as fairly effective at running clinics that provided free services (it's now illegal in Egypt since the coup).

None of that discounts the indiscriminate violence that Hamas has engaged in.

People have to face the fact that, increasingly, the choice in the Arab world is between some kind of popular Islamist regime and a more moderate dictatorship. The civil society that forms the basis for democracy just isn't there. Islam is only comparable force. So when people talk about a future Palestinian state, they should be asking "who would the king be?"

Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#7
post #4

Unfortunately the world did nothing in the proceeding ~15 years. Imagine what Gaza could look like, and how improved the lives of Palestinians could be, if that $1B were spent on schools, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure. It's shocking to me that anyone thinks of Hamas as anything but a terrorist organization and ruthless regime.

Actually UNWRA funding was spend the money on schools. A majority of now them damaged or destroyed. But there was a secondary non-UN source of funds via Qatar directly to Hamas. Thus funding source was approved and encouraged by Netanyahu. Netanyahu actually empowered and transferred money to Hamas, while disempowering moderates because he felt that was the best way to ensure there was never a 2 state solution. Read…

Let's not forget that Palestinians elected Hamas in 2006 [0] in what is largely considered a fair election*. And if anything, Israel's interference would have been against Hamas (see Wikipedia link).

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_legislative...

* There are some caveats to "fair" in this case, which is why I linked to the Wikipedia article. But it is by and large considered a legitimate democratic process.

Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#8
post #2

Someone brought up recently that the UK used tunnels to house military infrastructure during WWII, specifically they converted some tube stations and other things to military command centres, and some of those centres still operate. https://twitter.com/Alonso_GD/status/1747929379869540802 In the Israeli media, there is rumours from families of hostages that some hostages are dying from poison gases being pumped into…

> “The results of the investigation: Ron was indeed murdered,” she wrote. “Not by Hamas. Think more in the direction of Auschwitz and the showers but without Nazis and without Hamas as the cause. No accidental shooting, no report, premeditated murder, bombings with poisonous gases.” According to her, the IDF filled the tunnel in which he was held with gas, and his son was poisoned to death.

IDF is mowing down their own people, like they did before with the three escaped hostages trying to surrender waving white flags. I wonder if the use of chemical weapons in this case also constitute a war crime.

Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#9

Unfortunately the world did nothing in the proceeding ~15 years. Imagine what Gaza could look like, and how improved the lives of Palestinians could be, if that $1B were spent on schools, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure. It's shocking to me that anyone thinks of Hamas as anything but a terrorist organization and ruthless regime.

How much are the 3 Hamas leaders in Qatar worth? $11b? Maybe Hamas should have tried to take care of its own instead of sending suicide bombers into Israel

Re: Gaza's Underground: Hamas's Entire Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels

#10
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually UNWRA funding was spend the money on schools. A majority of now them damaged or destroyed. But there was a secondary non-UN source of funds via Qatar directly to Hamas. Thus funding source was approved and encouraged by Netanyahu. Netanyahu actually empowered and transferred money to Hamas, while disempowering moderates because he felt that was the best way to ensure there was never a 2 state solution. Read…

The idea that Netanyahu is responsible for Hamas' popularity is false. Yes, Israel has played Hamas off against the PA, yes that was a very bad move, but it's not the reason Palestinians prefer Hamas to the PA. Money doesn't explain everything.

> The idea that Netanyahu is responsible for Hamas' popularity is false.

The claim was that Netanyahu preferred Hamas "to ensure there was never a 2 state solution", which is true.

And so far it that seems to be working out. Mass starvation, infectious diseases, day 7 of the internet blackout in Gaza, the university in Gaza was just blown up with wired explosives, the Israeli government (even Mossad on Twitter, heh) proudly show it off.

Hamas doesn't explain all that, the expansionist goals do, including why one would have preferred Hamas. There was never a realistic threat of Hamas "destroying all of Israel" from Gaza, regardless of what Hamas might have wished they were capable of, but the destruction of all of Gaza, and the people in it, is going on with a speed and ferocity we haven't seen before.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2024/jan/11/palest...

Allegedly, the count of bombs dropped on Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, half the population being minors, now surpassed the amount of bombs dropped in the second Iraq war by US and UK combined in ~8 years, that number being 29,199 bombs according to Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bombings_during_the_Ir...

Here's an older (this all moves so quickly) article also discussing the 2000lbs bombs: https://edition.cnn.com/gaza-israel-big-bombs/index.html

> A man sits on debris as Palestinians conduct a search and rescue operation in Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza City, on November 1

Were there tunnels under the refugee camp? I don't know, and I don't care. One cannot hide the elephant of the violent excesses, the genocidal language and the settlers who seem to have their every whims catered for, completely behind the fig leaf of Hamas and the actors that support them.

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