Gaza – The tunnel that collapsed east of Gaza City last week is the same one that was used in the alleged kidnap of IDF soldier Oron Shaulduring Operation Protective Edge, Khalil Al-Hayeh, a senior Hamas official, revealed on Sunday.
The IDF has declared that Shaul was killed in an ambush in Gaza City’s Shejaia neighborhood in the 2014 incursion with Hamas. His body has since remained unaccounted for.
Seven Hamas members were killed in thetunnel collapse last week. Another four survived.
Hamas said that the seven men were members of its military wing, Izzadin Al-Kassam. They were renovating the tunnel that was partially destroyed during the war, Hamas said.
Al-Hayeh denounced UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who criticized Hamas for building the tunnels.
“The tunnel in which the Al-Kassam men were martyred is the same one that was used to kidnap the Zionist soldier Oron Shaul during the aggression against the Gaza Strip,” the Hamas officials said during a ceremony in Gaza City to commemorate the slain the Hamas members.
“The weapons that we possess is for defending our people and holy sites,” Al-Hayeh said. “Ban Ki-moon and all the others need to know that these weapons are for self-defense.” He also accused the UN chief of having previously “justified the crimes of Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.”
As reported by Vos Iz Neias