By Michael Bachner/TPS

A Hamas terrorist arrested by Israel at the beginning of April has revealed a significant amount of information on the efforts by Hamas to build tunnels into Israel, the Shin Bet released for publication on Thursday. This comes shortly after a second Hamas ‘terror tunnel’ was discovered by the IDF in the last few weeks.

The Hamas military wing member told interrogators many details about the routes of the tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip, about Hamas’s digging techniques, about the use of private and public buildings from which the tunnels originate, and about the technologies and materials used in the process.

Mahmoud Atauna, a 29-year-old resident of Jabaliya in Gaza, has been a member of the Hamas military wing for the last decade. He was arrested about a month ago after he crossed into Israel carrying two knives, the Shin Bet said in a statement. Atauna said under questioning that he had intended to stab and kill Israeli civilians or security force members inside Israel.

Atauna also revealed to his interrogators that he belongs to the Al-Qassam Brigades, part of Hamas’s military wing, and that he was involved in various Hamas operations such as the placing of explosives directed against IDF forces. However, the most valuable information he gave concerned his experience in the terror organization’s tunnel project in recent years.

According to the Shin Bet, Atauna pinpointed many digging focus points, including tunnel shafts meant to be used by Hamas elite units to conduct attacks against Israel. He said that the organization has constructed a branched network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip, which is used to transfer combatants and weapons. The tunnels are equipped with rooms in which the militants can rest, shower, and eat.

Atauna also revealed many names of militants who were in his Hamas unit and provided information on how Hamas uses private homes to store weapons. Many weapons were even kept in Atauna’s own home, including bombs, rifles and suicide belts that he was supposed to hand out in the case of a battle.

According to the Shin Bet, Atauna is just one of many Hamas combatants being interrogated and currently revealing inside information on the organization’s tunnel project. An indictment has been filed against him at the Beer Sheva District Court.

For the third day in a row, Gaza terrorists continued to shell southern Israel on Thursday afternoon.

The tenth mortar attack in two days was fired at southern Israel at about 4:45 pm, again targeting the IDF soldiers as they operating along the security fence in southern Gaza.

No injuries were reported, and an IDF tank fired back in the direction of the mortar fire.

The ninth and tenth attacks came after the IDF announced the discovery of a second cross-border attack tunnel penetrating into Israel territory from Gaza.

“Moments ago mortar rounds were fired at forces during operational activity adjacent to the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip,” said the IDF Spokesperson in a statement.

“No injuries have been reported. An IDF tank responded and fired towards the threat.”

A Hamas terrorist involved in the terror organization’s tunnel network was also arrested in a combined IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operation, according to a brief statement late Thursday afternoon by the intelligence agency.

“It’s nearly two years since Operation Protective Edge” and it’s the quietest it’s ever been since Hamas took control of the region in 2007, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops Tuesday during an unannounced visit with IDF soldiers stationed along the northern Gaza border.

Netanyahu had gone with top defense officials to inspect the site of a large terror tunnel leading from Gaza into Israel that was discovered last month. It was intended for use by Hamas’s elite Nukhba commandos during a strategic attack on Israeli communities by the border.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inspects a terror tunnel leading from Gaza under the border deep into Israeli territory.

“Tomorrow is Holocaust Remembrance Day; 70 years ago, we were like a leaf in the wind with no defense force, helpless as they massacred us, slaughtered us. Today we have a country and we have an army – we have the ability to defend ourselves,” Netanyahu said. “What motivates me is to secure the future of Israel in its land, because for the Jewish People there is no future without our land.”

He pointed out that elsewhere in the region things are not nearly as calm. “We are in the eye of the storm, I want you to know this,” he said. “ A half million people have been murdered around us in Syria, which is collapsing. Iraq has collapsed, neither of them – actually – still exist. Yemen collapsed, Libya collapsed.”

Israel is an “island of stability,” he said.

But a few hours after the prime minister left the area, Gaza terrorists opened fire at IDF soldiers and vehicles operating near the Gaza Belt community of Nahal Oz, close to the security fence along Gaza’s northern border. No soldiers were injured in the attack; however, at least one military vehicle was damaged.

According to the IDF Spokesperson, soldiers from the Engineering Corps were doing routine maintenance on the security fence at the time of the attack. They were working on a section of the fence near the Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaya – the location of one of the toughest battles fought by the IDF against Hamas during Operation Protective Edge.

By Joshua B. Dermer/TPS

Nahal Oz (TPS) – An Israeli army vehicle was hit by gunfire from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops stationed on Gaza border and inspected a recently uncovered Hamas “terror tunnel” reaching into Israeli territory.

A military vehicle was struck near Nahal Oz, an Israeli community just beyond the security fence bordering the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF announced. The vehicle suffered damage but no one was injured in the incident.

Earlier in the day, Netanyahu toured the southern area of the Gazan border accompanied by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Gadi Eizenkot and inspected the Hamas tunnel uncovered by IDF forces several weeks ago. Netanyahu and Ya’alon were briefed by Gen. Eyal Zamir, Director of the Southern Command, on the most up-to-date Gaza survey findings.

“Tomorrow is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Seventy years ago we were like a leaf in the wind, with no defense force and helpless. We were slaughtered,” Netanyahu told soldiers of the 51st battalion stationed at the border. “Today we have a country and we have an army. We have the ability to defend ourselves on all fronts, both near and remote. What drives me is to secure the future of Israel and its people.”

“We are in the eye of the storm,” Netanyahu continued. “You see what’s happening. Millions are fleeing for their lives to Europe, and we have ISIS in the Golan on the other side [of the border], and ISIS here on the other side,” he said, referring to extremist forces in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Desert.

“We are basically in the eye of the storm, and relative to the area we are the most stable, tranquil, and safest country.”

By Michael Bachner/TPS

Erez Crossing (TPS) – Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon decided on Monday to open a second border crossing for the transfer of goods into the Gaza Strip. The opening of the Erez Crossing for supplies entering Gaza will alleviate pressure on the existing passageway for the thousand trucks per day that are currently forced to drive along narrow roads and disrupt the lives of residents of nearby communities.

The Erez Crossing is located at the northern Gaza border and is used primarily to allow people enter and exit the strip. The only border crossing used thus far to transfer the large amount of supplies into Gaza was the Kerem Shalom Crossing, located at the southernmost end of Israel’s border with Gaza, near the Egyptian border.

MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid), who previously served as head of the Eshkol Regional Council which borders Gaza, praised Ya’alon’s decision.

“Around 1,000 trucks make their way every day along the entire Gaza border to get to the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” said Yellin. “Opening the Erez Crossing for the transfer of goods to Gaza will reduce the pressure at the Kerem Shalom Crossing. It will also significantly reduce the number of trucks driving on the narrow and dangerous road, which is currently a ticking bomb.”

The current head of the Eshkol Regional Council, Gadi Yarkoni, has waged a public battle for the opening of a second border crossing together with Shai Hajaj, head of the nearby Merhavim Local Council.

“We have been leading a determined struggle over the past months to open a second crossing for goods in the north, in order to decrease the incredible amount of trucks riding on roads in the area and endangering the residents’ safety,” said the two in a joint statement.

“The defense minister updated us on the opening of the Erez Crossing for goods, to divert some of the trucks,” they added. “This decision indicates his firm support of the local communities in the region.”

Meanwhile, reports have emerged in Israeli media that Israel will renew its supply of cement to Gaza for use in private civilian projects.

According to the report in the Israeli site Ynet, the cement is meant to reconstruct thousands of civilian structures damaged or destroyed during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014 and to be used in aid and welfare projects in the coastal strip.

Israel stopped supplying cement to the Gaza private sector last month, due to attempts by Hamas to use the cement for military purposes, such as its elaborate “terror tunnel” project. Several weeks ago Israel uncovered a mile-long tunnel leading into Israel from Gaza, ostensibly designed by Hamas to kill or abduct Israelis.

A terror tunnel under the Gazan town of Khan Younis collapsed on Saturday night – this is separate from the tunnel explosion is Rafah, Gaza that wounded 30 people

Three Hamas terrorists have been wounded and five others are still missing underground.

This is the 10th or 11th terror tunnel to collapse since December 2015.

It is suspected that Israel is somehow causing the terror tunnels to collapse as the terror tunnels have begun to collapse on a very regular basis.

Alternatively, the shortage of cement is forcing Hamas to use weaker construction materials that can’t hold the weight of the sand above.

While Israelis were welcoming the rain to feed the parched earth — even though it caused power outages and shut down operations throughout the country — Gaza’s water-logged sands became a muddy mass grave for cold, wet Hamas terror tunnel diggers.

Jews pray three times a day for rain to assure the Creator’s promise to give “rain for your land at the proper time, the early rain and the late rain.” Otherwise, God warns He “will close the heavens so that there will be no rain and the earth will not yield its produce…” (Deuteronomy 11:13-21)

It’s more than enough reason to pray, and pray they do. In return, Heaven sent a three-day howler this week that showered down everything with gale-force winds, from snow to sleet to hail to rain, from Metullah and the Golan Heights straight down south to the Negev, and Gaza.

Officials at Israel’s Water Authority were pleased to see that the water level in Lake Kinneret (Israel’s primary source of drinking water) rose three centimeters. Elsewhere around Israel green things began popping up as well.

But there was a holy disaster down south where the water-logged sands of Gaza sank under the weight of the downpour. A second terror tunnel being built in the area of Jabalya collapsed on the hapless diggers who were being forced to continue their labors despite the bad weather.

Numerous local sources confided in tweets on social media that the worsening weather had also caused flooding in nearly all the homes and caravans in the area.

Eight are reported dead so far, three others were dragged out, badly injured. Contact with the Hamas diggers was lost Tuesday night, according to Palestinian Authority media. Their bodies were dragged out from the mud and brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Walla! News reported.

But the official Gaza government is trying to keep the news of the deaths under wraps. Not even one new announcement of an al-Qassam “wedding” appears on the Hamas military wing’s Iz a-Din al-Qassam website — unlike the death of its lone digger on Saturday. On Sunday, Hamas proudly posted a notice about the death of Mohammed Ashour al-Naj’ar, 31, on the homepage of its military website. “Al Qassam Brigades wed Mukahid Mohammed al-Najjar, who ascended after the collapse of the tunnel for the resistance,” the group announced.

After Tuesday’s cave-in a spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health entirely denied the deaths, saying no bodies were brought to the hospital after the collapse.

Likewise, a security source linked to Hamas told foreign journalists the eight diggers were still missing, according to a report published Wednesday in Lebanon’s Daily Star. “The resistance tunnel collapsed last night due to the weather and flooding,” the source said. “There were 11 resistance men inside. Three of them escaped in the first hour after the accident, but the security operation… continues to search for the eight others.”

It’s important for Hamas to keep its “fighters” building those tunnels. Iran has sent tens of millions of dollars to help rebuild its underground terror tunnel network. This way Hamas and its ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad can wage another proxy war against Israel on behalf of Tehran.

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