Cross-border terror tunnels constructed to carry out terror attacks on communities in Israel, appear to have been turned into a summer visitor attraction for young Gazans by Hamas.
Video footage posted to Facebook by Afaq, a pro-Hamas media outlet in Gaza, shows lines of children walking through the tunnels decorated with posters of Hamas operatives apparently killed by Israel. In one shot, a guide wearing a florescent yellow jacket can be seen touring the children around the tunnels.
According to the Facebook post, the tunnel tours are taking place in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, and form part of a Hamas exhibition displaying weapons and methods used in the “resistance” against Israel.
The text introducing the video states: Afaq media enters a tunnel created by the Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s military wing) during a weapons exhibition in Shejaiya on the anniversary [of the war]”.
Click here to watch the video.
Palestinian users of social media have posted photos of the weapons display as well as images showing children attending Hamas summer camps on a hike through one of the tunnels.
During the Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, terror tunnels in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza were used to ambush Israeli soldiers who were conducting operations in the area.
During the Operation Protective Edge conflict in Gaza in the summer of 2014, Israel uncovered and destroyed 32 cross-border tunnels, through which Hamas planned to infiltrate Israel to carry out terror attacks. Cross-border tunnels were used in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006.
Following the conflict, Israel invested an estimated NIS 1 billion (approximately $250 million) into developing a detection system to locate such tunnels.
