Report: Hamas using Gaza reconstruction materials to repair infiltration
tunnels
By JPOST.COM STAFF 12/19/2014 08:49
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Report-Material-for-Gaza-reconstruction-diverted-to-Hamas-for-tunnel-reparations-385178

Hamas has been reinforcing damaged tunnel network by means of diverted
building materials that recently entered Gaza for reparation efforts,
according to anonymous Palestinian sources.
Israel-Gaza border

Hamas has reportedly begun repairing its network of underground infiltration
tunnels damaged in the summer war with Israel, Israel Radio cited unnamed
Palestinian sources as saying.

According to the report, Hamas has been reinforcing its tunnel offensive
used against Israel by means of diverted cement and building materials that
recently entered Gaza for reparation efforts following Operation Protective
Edge.

The sources said that while the majority of construction materials have
reached their intended destinations for use in rebuilding private home,
Gaza's ruling Islamist group has obtained a share, Israel Radio reported.

In October, truckloads of cement and steel rolled into the Gaza Strip for
the first time in a year.

In light of fear that incoming construction material would end up in the
hands of Hamas, the UN brokered a deal with Israel and the Palestinian
Authority to create a monitoring mechanism to ensure that material are not
diverted to Hamas for use in rebuilding the tunnels Israel destroyed during
the summer conflict.

That mechanism – which went into operation during UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon’s visit to Gaza in mid-October – is designed to allow an estimated
60,000 homes that were damaged or destroyed to be rebuilt. The material is
earmarked for both the private and public projects, as well as those
organized by the international community.

Israel, which controls the sole commercial crossing between Israel and the
Gaza Strip, at Kerem Shalom, banned most building materials from entering
the area in October 2013.

It did so for security reasons after it uncovered a large tunnel through
which Hamas had planned to attack Israel.

Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.