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HAIFA, Israel – The latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended
Friday morning when Hamas resumed its costly campaign of rocket attacks
on Israel even as its 2 million constituents suffer from wrenching
poverty.
Although the millions of Palestinians packed into the small strip
suffer from chronic unemployment, and lack of electricity and running
water, Hamas and its backers such as Qatar have spent hundreds of
millions of dollars on tunnels and rockets with one goal in mind:
killing Israelis.
“When you look at what Hamas did with all the cement and the
materials that went into Gaza for ‘building’, and you now see that most
went on the tunnels, you understand that from their point of view the
civilian side is not important,” retired Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror,
former national security advisor to the prime minister of Israel and
director of the Intelligence Analysis Division in Israel’s Military
Intelligence, told FoxNews.com.
So far, Israel has destroyed some 32 terror tunnels – each one
requiring the equivalent of 350 truckloads of building supplies and
costing up to $3 million to create, according to the IDF. And 3,360
short and medium-range rockets have been fired at Israel by Hamas and
other militant Islamist groups, likely costing millions more.
Hamas’ arsenal- estimates suggest they still retain a significant
number of missiles - includes home-made crude Qassam rockets,as well as
longer-range more sophisticated weapons such as the Iranian Grad and
Fajr5, and Syrian-made M302’s. Hamas had scores of rocket launching
sites, many placed in or close to schools, mosques, and hospitals -
including missiles hidden in UNRWA schools on three separate occasions.
Regional experts argue that Hamas’ terror infrastructure shows the
terrorist group elected to power in 2006 shows its economic policies
place war on Israel above the welfare of its own people. Gaza’s total
gross domestic product is approximately $750 million, and although
funding for attacks on Israel often comes from patrons like Iran,
Turkey, and Qatar, true economic aid from Gaza’s allies should be spent
to better the lives of Palestinians, experts say.
“Hamas is the same movement that runs both the civilian and the
military [in Gaza],” said Amidror. “So when the money is going to Hamas,
it is going both for civilian and military purposes. There is no
question that Qatar is the biggest funder of Hamas. In the past it was
more taxes from the tunnels that ran from the Sinai Peninsula [that
funded Hamas], but today there is no question that it is Qatar more than
anyone else.”
In 2012, the former Emir of Qatar visited Gaza and made a donation of
$400 million to Hamas, a donation The New York Times reported would go
towards “two housing complexes, rehabilitate three main roads, and
create a prosthetic center, among other projects.”
Hamas appear to have diverted the funds to terror projects. The
Qatari smoke screen of donating to ‘civilian projects’ fools few people,
Israeli officials say.
In one of his final speeches last month before he stepped down as
president of Israel, Shimon Peres also highlighted Qatar as the main
financier of the Gaza regime.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Peres “charged Qatar, saying
that Qatar had no right to spend millions of petrol dollars to enable
Hamas to build rockets and tunnels instead of developing Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinians who suffer under Hamas’ governance can
only watch as money that could have been spent to improve their lives is
spent on rockets and tunnels now being systematically destroyed by the
IDF.
“Most of Gaza’s civilians survive in substandard living conditions
without the infrastructure to support basic sanitation, running water,
and a sewer system,” said Itamar Gelbman, a former IDF special forces
lieutenant and a U.S.-based security consultant. “The unemployment rate
is over 40 percent and for the lucky ones who actually do work, they
have to settle for an average salary of $16 per day.”
Gelbman said instead of building terror tunnels, Hamas could have
used the same money, equipment, and engineering to construct sewage and
water treatment facilities, improve old infrastructure, build schools,
and even create beach front resorts
While its leaders live lavish lifestyles with luxurious villas on the
Mediterranean shore, most Gazans sit and suffer as government workers
go unpaid and money that could have been used to improve many lives
continues to be squandered on Hamas’ pursuit of destroying Israel.
“Only judging by their deeds you understand that there is no way that
[Qatari] money went to civilian programs” said Amidror. “The materials
went for military purposes.”
Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. Follow him on Twitter @paul_alster and visit his website: www.paulalster.com.