Conservative MP Andrew Bowie this week raised concerns about Hamas’s cross-border attack tunnels that are “built to attack Israeli civilians”, in International Development Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
The MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine said: “In the last few weeks, there has sadly been an increase in tension and violence on the Israel-Gaza border. Just last weekend, Israel destroyed a cross-border tunnel that Hamas had built to attack Israeli civilians”.
He asked: “I happen to have seen that those tunnels involve a huge amount of construction materials, so what is the Minister doing to ensure that no UK aid is being diverted to fund those terrible tunnels?”
Minister for the Middle East, Rt. Hon. Alistair Burt MP said in his response that the Government is “well aware of this threat”. He added: “We support the materials monitoring unit of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, which oversees the approval, entry and use of materials for reconstruction. We regularly audit spending to ensure that there is no diversion in the manner that my hon. Friend raised”.
Mr Bowie had visited Israel with CFI in February, with seven other Conservative parliamentarians, where they viewed a Hamas terror tunnel found leading into Israel near Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha.
Since the start of this year, the IDF has found and destroyed numerous tunnels from Gaza, constructed by Hamas militants in order to carry out terror incursions into Israel.
