But as pointed out by AP, this appears to be the first time the group has killed one of its own members during peacetime.
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During the 2014 conflict, more than 2,322 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip – the vast majority of them civilians – and 11,000 others injured, while much of the strip’s vital infrastructure was destroyed by 51 days of fierce Israeli bombardment.
Israel’s military chief of staff said Tuesday that Israel is quietly working – mostly in secret – to combat the threat of Hamas attack tunnels.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has said that the Israeli army has to deal calmly and responsibly with the aspect of the Palestinian resistance tunnels along the border with the Gaza Strip.
In a rare public recognition of the movement’s efforts to build a web of tunnels on Gaza’s border with Israel, Hamas’s prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, has paid tribute to the buried fighters.
He had been trying to restore the damage caused by Egypt flooding the tunnel, the source added.
Some reports indicated Iran had never stopped supporting Hamas, including an April 2015 story in the Telegraph that quoted intelligence officials who said Iran had sent “tens of millions of dollars” to Hamas.
Israeli sources familiar with the situation told Elaph that Israel has updated Egypt on the movements of the Islamic State affiliate in Sinai and provided Egypt with information on the group’s relations with Hamas.
Ya’alon, who last week asserted that no Gazan attack tunnel have so far reached Israeli territory, blasted Herzog for accusing the government of inaction on the rebuilding by Palestinian terrorists of infiltration tunnels – the likes of which the IDF destroyed in 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. The independent Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported that the tunnel was situated between Gaza and Egypt.
Hamas’s military commander, Mohammed Deif, they say, plans to use them to launch a lightning strike on Israeli communities, probably to capture hostages, and try to force Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and open up the blockade on Gaza. Israeli security officials have warned that any calm in Gaza will be temporary unless locals are given an incentive to keep the peace.
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Gaza’s tunnel networks are notoriously unsafe.
