Hamas says it continues to build tunnels to attack Israel

In a statement delivered by his spokesperson, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday that he was “alarmed” by the recent statements from the Hamas leadership in Gaza stating their intention to continue building tunnels and firing rockets at Israel.

Eight members of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas disappeared Wednesday when rain and flooding caused an underground tunnel near Jabaliya to collapse.

Abu Tir is a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from East Jerusalem. The tunnel collapsed due to weather conditions, the Hamas sources said. Officials from Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip, were seeking to keep tight control over information regarding the incident.

The tunnels have been used in the past to store weapons or stage attacks.

Israeli media has reported that people living in communities near the border with Gaza have complained to authorities after hearing tunneling sounds. A third of these tunnels reportedly reach into Israeli territory. Mosques across the Palestinian enclave mourned those killed, calling them “Martyrs of the Preparation”, a reference to their work digging tunnels used to attack Israel. Those killed in this week’s collapse were being portrayed as heros.

So many thousands of Gazans congregated to celebrate the terrorists that they were climbing on rooftops as the funeral procession went by.

Egypt’s sole border with Gaza has also remained largely closed following the 2013 overthrow of the country’s president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, effectively trapping the 1.

Since 2008, Israel waged three large-scale military offensives on the Gaza Strip to rein on the military abilities of Hamas and other minor militant groups; the largest offensive was in the summer of 2014 and lasted for 50 days.

Hamas’ vast network of tunnels, many leading into Israel, was a major issue during the 2014 war.