Following Operation Cast Lead, donations for cement were needed to rebuild new and damaged buildings in Gaza. However a report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center this August revealed that significant priority was given to rebuilding Hamas military infrastructure. A substantial amount of cement was allotted to building the extensive system of attack tunnels and smuggling tunnels under Gaza’s urban landscape. Hamas also utilized the cement to build most of its military infrastructure in densely-populated territory as part of its combat strategy.
Palestinian military sources told Al-Monitor that the tunnel discovered by Israel near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha from Gaza in October 2013 cost an estimated $10 million and required 800 tons of concrete. Over 100 diggers worked on the tunnel for more than two years, equipping it with a communications network and electricity as well as stockpiles of cookies, yogurt and other foods that would last for several months. During the war itself, the IDF discovered within the terror tunnels, AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and motorcycles.
Hamas recently indicated to international press that it would continue building up its underground network while restocking arsenal, rockets and other weaponry. As one Hamas fighter told a Reuters news reporter last week who visited an underground tunnel in Gaza, “In peace we make preparations, and in war we use what we have readied.”