Children have died building tunnels for Hamas
While critics of Israel have been the loudest in the international outrage over the killing of young innocents in the attacks that Israel has been carrying out against Hamas in Gaza, they have been muted on the death of children Hamas has employed in the construction of dozens of tunnels that open out in Israel and are used by the terror outfit to carry arms and personnel into its enemy's territory. The Journal of Palestine Studies had in 2012 reported that at least 160 children had been killed while they were employed by Hamas to dig and fortify the tunnels. The author, Nicholas Pelham, wrote that Hamas had demonstrated a “cavalier approach to child labour and tunnel fatalities”. Most of these children had been made to work against their will, Pelham noted in his article, ‘Gaza's Tunnel Phenomenon: The Unintended Dynamics of Israel's Siege'. The author further said that “nothing was done to impede the use of children in the tunnels, where, much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies.” It would be easy for sympathisers of Hamas to allege that the article is not only baseless but also the product of an anti-Palestine mindset. The fact is that the Journal of Palestine Studies supports the Palestine cause. It says the tunnels are a symbol of resistance to the “siege” of the Gaza Strip. Moreover, even Hamas had not contested the findings of the article when it was published a couple of years ago. It is surprising that our Members of Parliament who spewed venom on Israel during the recent discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the death of children due to Israeli firing, remained silent on this aspect of Hamas brutality. They did not find in fitting to observe that not only had Hamas used (and probably still does) children to build these tunnels of terror, it did so against the will of the children and the local population. In other words, Hamas indulged in child slavery, besides sacrificing the lives of children for its obnoxious cause.
Tunnels have become the preferred conduit for Hamas to stockpile and carry lethal weaponry as well as transport terrorists into Israel. These underground pathways have multiple access points and are well-camouflaged, making it extremely difficult for the Israeli forces to spot and destroy them. Over the weeks, Israel Defence Forces have discovered at least 30 such tunnels which must have consumed several hundreds of tonnes of concrete — material that could have been used for the construction of schools, hospitals and other public utilities in Gaza. Tunnels once upon a time also opened into Egypt, but have been largely shut down with the ouster of the Mohamed Morsi regime and its replacement with the Government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The underground pathways are a good place for Hamas to not only secretly amass their weapons and people, but to put them to use as and when they are needed — like when a ceasefire ends. Israel is fighting two wars: One on and over the ground, and another under.