Hamas has fired thousands of rockets at Israel over the years, among other acts of terror. Illustrative photo of spent Rockets fired from Gaza. By Joshua Spurlock.
It’s not just Israelis who are being harmed by the actions of Hamas, which rules Gaza—the terror group has confiscated millions of liters of fuel not to power the civilians in Gaza but to make money to fuel their “terror machine”, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office spokesman tweeted on Sunday.
Dozens of trucks carrying 2 million liters of fuel intended for Gaza’s power station went into Gaza the day before, but Ofir Gendelman tweeted that Hamas “did not use them to generate power.” That would have given Gazans more hours of electricity each day, but Gendelman’s post to Twitter noted that “Hamas doesn’t care. Its leaders have 24/7 power anyway.”
Instead of Hamas acting to benefit their people in Gaza, the spokesman followed up to tweet that “Hamas took this vast quantity of fuel that could provide electricity for the people of Gaza, and it will sell it, taking all profit to fund its terror machine. This is Hamas’ priority and only interest.”
Following the recent escalation between Israel and terrorists in the Gaza Strip, which side is really pursuing peace and which one is stirring strife is clear to Israel—just look at what they are building. During an event last week honoring the opening of a fortified emergency room in a hospital in Israel’s south, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the contrast between Israel and Hamas: “We build hospitals while they build terrorist tunnels and missiles.”
Netanyahu, whose comments were published by his office, noted that when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip “some people still had an iota of hope that the other side would choose to rise to the path of tranquil life; however, it became clear very quickly that the concerns were based in reality. The Hamas regime and the other terrorist organizations turned the Gaza Strip into a powder-keg.”
Netanyahu said that today amidst the ongoing conflict, its not Israel who is causing chaos in Gaza. “We have no desire to harm the daily routine of the residents of Gaza but they must know that it is not Israel which is responsible for their plight. It is the extremists leading Gaza that are completely responsible.”
At the same time, Netanyahu said they weren’t only going to take defensive measures like the fortified hospital—they would respond offensively when needed.
“We do not intend to ignore the attempts to violate our sovereignty or harm our soldiers and residents and we have proven this time and again,” said Netanyahu. “We will not accept trickles or bombs on the fence such as we saw last weekend. Whoever hurts us—will himself be hurt. Whoever does not act to calm the situation but instead chooses to fan the flames—will bear full responsibility.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, February 25, 2018)