Man Dies in Gaza Tunnel Collapse

Israel Defense Forces searching a Terror Tunnel in Gaza. 

In his most recent article entitled, “Hamas operative said killed in fresh Gaza tunnel collapse,” Raoul Wootcliff, an editor for a news company named The Times of Israel, elaborated on a recent incident in Gaza earlier in February involving a Hamas operative. Wootcliff writes about the incident and the Israeli and Egyptian response.

 According to the Palestinian media reports, a Hamas operative was killed earlier this week due to the collapse of a terror tunnel which ran through the border of Egypt and Gaza. Wootcliff continues to say that throughout the past couple of months, there have been roughly 11 dead due to incidents occurring in Hamas’s terror tunnel system. This specific incident came on the day after another operative died in the terror tunnel system.

Since the discovery of the tunnel system in a 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces have launched multiple efforts, with cooperation and assistance from Egyptian leadership, to snuff out these tunnels and destroy them. Hamas has been using a system of tunnels called “terror tunnels,” to navigate undetected under both the Israeli and Egyptian border. This tunnel system has been used to smuggle weapons, missiles, ammunition, and materials into and out of Gaza. Most recently, the terror tunnels were used for Hamas operatives to get into Israel and carry out violent attacks onto Israeli civilians.

One of Wootcliff’s more major talking points was the press conference of Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose comments have drawn a lot of attention. Wootcliff tells us that based off of his comments, the media has strongly speculated recently that the Israeli Defense Forces have been doing everything in its power, a majority of the time in secrecy, to combat and suppress the construction and usage of Hamas tunnels with the intention of being used to carry out attacks onto Israeli civilians, Arab and Jews alike.  Eisenkot told the media, as Wootcliff reported, that the Israeli Defense Forces have deployed well over 100 engineering vehicles on a search and destroy mission on the border of Israel and Gaza. The objective for these vehicles is clear; find the tunnels, and destroy them.  Israel, currently dealing with increased tensions and threats from ISIS, Iran, and Hezbollah on the Northern border, is looking for an efficient way to put to rest the looming fear of terrorist waves coming out of Gaza via terror tunnels.

Wootcliff continues, and touched on Israel and Egypt’s joint efforts in squashing the terror tunnels. Other than complete destruction of each tunnel they find, the Israelis and Egyptians have found that flooding the tunnels with seawater has been extremely effective. He cites Israeli Energy Minister, Yuval Steinitz, and his confirmation of tunnel flooding by the Egyptian military on the southern border of Gaza; however these floods were done at the discretion and desire of the Israeli Military.

Wootcliff used many facts from many different sources, Palestinian, Egyptian and Israeli. Nearly all of the sources Wootcliff used seemed to be reliable sources. His article was less statistical and more conversational. Wootcliff remained neutral, objective, and impartial while writing his article. He neither offered his opinion on the matter, criticism of the countries involved, nor showed sympathy for the deceased.

In my opinion, while death is tragic in its own right, there was some sort of moral and karmic balance here. Hamas does not shy away from their intentions with the tunnels and what they are used for, and the usage of the tunnel could potentially have led to death Israeli civilians. I agree with the efforts on the Egyptian and Israeli sides to destroy the terror tunnels, as it can potentially bring stability to the region. Preventing terror attacks, and stopping the flow of weapons into and out of Gaza to kill innocent civilians is a great objective to have, and I personally stand behind whatever country or entity choses to make this their objective.