The Israel Air Force’s bombardment last Friday of Hamas’ internal network of tunnels — known as the “Metro” — destroyed miles of subterranean structures. Yet, instead of focusing on the massive, intricate nature of the Gaza Strip’s terrorist infrastructure, some of the world’s leading news organizations continue to depict Israel’s military efforts to protect its citizens from the over 2,500 rockets launched at them as an unprovoked “aggression.”
Indeed, media are seemingly so hell-bent on blaming Israel for the current confrontation that they are ignoring one of the foremost factors fueling the latest round of violence; namely, that Hamas has been able to inflict such severe damage because it is one of the world’s wealthiest terrorist organizations.
That Hamas has chosen to invest these resources into building up its terror machine has hurt not only Israel but the people of Gaza as well.
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Palestinians’ Suffering is Hamas’ Good Fortune
Since Hamas assumed absolute power in Gaza following an internecine war, Palestinians living in the coastal enclave have increasingly been fraught with rampant poverty. This, even though Hamas is the world’s third-richest terrorist group. In total, Hamas is estimated to rake in approximately $700 million annually.
Hamas’ biggest benefactor is Iran – the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism – which, along with Qatar, fills Gaza’s coffers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
But the Islamic Republic’s largesse comes with strings, none of which include enhancing the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza. Instead, Tehran requires that Hamas allocate huge sums of money to supporting and expanding the terrorist activities of its so-called military wing. The funding amounts to nearly half of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades’ total estimated budget.
Additionally, Professor Ahmed Karima of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University has claimed that Hamas has some 1,200 millionaires among its ranks. According to sources in Gaza, the wealth of high-level Hamas members has come primarily from Gaza’s flourishing tunnel industry.
Related Reading: Glaring Omission: Media Mute on Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad Links to Iran
Evidently, Hamas is proving to be a most dutiful proxy. On May 15, the chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Esmail Ghaani, spoke by phone with the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh. The former hailed the latter as a “unique and successful answer” to destroying Israel.
Meanwhile, Haniyeh told hundreds at a rally in Qatar — where he is based — that “resistance is the shortest road to Jerusalem,” which his terrorist group envisions conquering.
Moments ago, chief of Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, addressing an enormous crowd in Doha, Qatar. pic.twitter.com/FdLQfpKNFE
— Arwa Ibrahim (@arwaib) May 15, 2021
All the while, Hamas’ terrorist activities are made easier by the existence of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which tends to millions of Palestinian “refugees.” According to a UN report, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use UNRWA schools to both store rockets and launch them at Israel, each tactic constituting a violation of international humanitarian law.
This is especially problematic given that the Biden Administration recently announced the restoration of at least $235 million in US assistance to the Palestinians. The aid package includes $150 million for the controversial UNRWA and $75 million in economic aid for the West Bank and Gaza.
Related Reading: Does Biden Admin’s Proposed Aid to Palestinians Violate US Law?
Sorry, NYT, ‘Hamas Metro’ is More Than an Apartment
Even tacit references acknowledging Hamas’ strategy of placing military assets in populated areas are used to smear Israel. For example, a portion of a May 15 piece in The New York Times reads:
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces said that it had ‘attacked a number of Hamas terror organization senior officials, in an apartment used as terror infrastructure in the area of the Al Shati refugee camp.’”
The quote, however, is the only reference to Hamas’ vast terrorist infrastructure in an article titled, An Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 members of a family in a Gaza refugee camp.
No mention that the intended targets were Hamas leaders that had almost certainly met in a civilian area with a view to immunizing themselves from an Israeli attack.
The Washington Post…Gets It Right
While HonestReporting regularly takes The Washington Post to task for its problematic coverage of Israel, it deserves credit for a well-researched May 15 piece, written by Adam Taylor.
As Taylor notes, Hamas’ terror tunnels were initially used primarily to smuggle goods into the coastal enclave, but quickly became instruments through which to perpetrate cross-border attacks and capture an Israeli soldier. During the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli officials said that IDF troops were routinely being ambushed by terrorists emerging from under the ground in Gaza. Israeli forces also discovered Hamas fighters carrying handcuffs and tranquilizers, apparently in order to kidnap civilians.
Between 2007 and 2014, Hamas built more than 1,300 tunnels at a cost of $1.25 billion, funds that could have been spent on alleviating poverty or public infrastructure projects.
Blame Israel, Facts Be Damned: The New York Times, CNN, DW Not Connecting the Dots
Unfortunately, The Washington Post item is an exception to an apparent media rule related to the current Gaza conflict. Whether to generate clickbait headlines or push the simplistic narrative of Israel as “aggressor” and the Palestinians as “victims,” there has been little coverage detailing Hamas’ use of funds that are much needed by Gazans for ‘military’ purposes instead; this, as the media regularly slam Israel as the sole party responsible for the dire conditions in the Strip.
Case in point: This piece by DW News, a global English-language organization with a massive following:
The tunnel-sized hole in the recent reporting by The New York Times, CNN, DW News and other major outlets effectively buries an inconvenient truth: That Palestinians are suffering due to Hamas’ rule in Gaza.
Even though “money talks,” as the old adage goes, media simply refuse to digest this blunt reality.
