Al-Jazeera has featured a look at the operations of the tunnel-digging unit of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades. According to a MEMRI translation of the audio from the program:
Hamas
This Al-Jazeera TV report, posted on the Internet on November 16, 2013, shows how members of the tunnel-digging unit of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades dig the tunnels and how rockets are launched from the tunnel openings.
Following are excerpts:
Voice of reporter: These are the resistance fighters deployed on the Gaza border. They are constantly on guard, preparing for any Israeli incursion. These preparations, however, do not take place only above ground. Underground, there is deployment of another kind, out of sight. We are with the tunnel-digging unit of Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. A young member of the unit leads us through this secret tunnel, somewhere in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Qassam tunnel-digging unit member: Our entire life is underground. We spend weeks underground. We dig and invest all our energy in order to accomplish the plan of Jihad, the plan to liberate our prisoners and our lands.
Al-Qassam tunnel unit member prays inside the tunnel
Voice of reporter: The tunnel is very deep and very long.
Israeli media has also published a revealing look into the high-technology in the tunnels provided by Qatar. According to a Times of Israel report:
Although many Israelis underestimate its capabilities, Hamas actually has sophisticated computer and networking resources in terror tunnels to detect the presence of IDF troops and to automatically fire rockets and missiles at Israeli targets — and a rich sponsor is helping them.
It’s Gulf oil powerhouse Qatar, says Aviad Dadon of Israeli cyber-security firm AdoreGroup. “The Qataris have invested hundreds of millions in both defensive and offensive cyber capabilities,” said Dadon. “We have sourced 70% of the cyber-attacks on Israeli government sites in recent weeks to IP addresses associated with Qatar.”
Dadon was speaking in an interview on Israel Radio Thursday morning, presenting an aspect of Operation Protective Edge that few Israelis were aware of — the extensive use Hamas has made of computer and networking systems in its war against Israel. Not only is Qatar footing the bill, it also trained Hamas terrorists how to use sophisticated equipment and systems to manage its extensive terror tunnel system, as well, systems to fire rockets at Israel using automatic, timed launching systems.
“Qatar looks at this war between Israel and Hamas as a proving ground,” said Dadon, a senior cyber-security adviser at several Israeli government ministries. “They are taking lessons from the performance of their cyber-equipment and will improve them even further for the next war, which will be even more cyber-oriented than this one.”
