Hamas reportedly is an even more monstrous group than is widely known.
The terrorist group, which is funded by governments including Iran and Qatar, has dug numerous tunnels into Israel. Those tunnels are weapons — Hamas uses them to launch attacks on Israeli civilian and military targets. Israel is trying to destroy those tunnels in the current campaign.
But who dug the tunnels?
Forced child laborers, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.
Hamas used children to help them dig numerous tunnels into Israel and Egypt, a 2012 paper written for the Journal of Palestine Studies reported.
The paper, titled Gaza’s Tunnel Phenomenon: The Unintended Dynamics of Israel’s Siege says that little had been done to stop the phenomenon of child labor during the digging of the tunnels by Hamas in Gaza.
In December 2011, the paper’s author Nicolas Pelham accompanied a police patrol in Gaza and reported 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.”
According to the report, at least 160 children have been killed while digging Hamas’ terror tunnels.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer recently went into a Hamas tunnel with the Israel Defense Forces. While he did not mention anything about child labor, he confirmed how small the tunnels are.
(CNN) — The opening was so small that CNN’s Wolf Blitzer — no physical giant — had to bend down to climb inside one of 30 or so Palestinian tunnels from Gaza to southern Israel.
“I guess the tunnel was built for relatively short people, because if you stand up you’re going to hit your head,” Blitzer said of the almost two-mile concrete corridor about 45 feet underground where he reported from Monday.
The tunnels aren’t just built for short people. They’re dug by children.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member