The military capabilities of Hamas in Gaza have reportedly been restored to their strength pre-2014, when the Islamist terror group fought a war with Israel that depleted much of its arsenal and battered much of its military infrastructure.
Senior military and defense officials said Hamas’s network of cross-border tunnels and its missile arsenal have been fully restored, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported.
The report caps two years in which Hamas, the de facto ruling power in Gaza, sought to rebuild its military capabilities, including thousands of missiles, small arms, and a network of tunnels, many of which crossed into Israel.
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008. Gaza is subject to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade in an effort to prevent Hamas, which avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, from importing weaponry and restoring its military infrastructure.
During the 2014 war, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, cross-border tunnels were a key weapon for Hamas, allowing its fighters to infiltrate Israeli territory and launch attacks against Israeli soldiers.
Israel destroyed about a third of its tunnels in the 2014 fighting. READ MORE
