Hamas Tries To Keep Lid on Tunnel Disaster as Death Toll Rises

Terror group blames Israel for cave-in that left seven dead and four missing

Screenshot from an Iranian TV report purporting to show a new Hamas tunnel that reaches into Israeli territory, June 28, 2015. (Screenshot/Al-Alam)

Avi Issacharoff,

Hamas on Wednesday tried to keep under wraps the details of a Gaza Strip tunnel collapse, the day after the cave-in killed several members of the terror group.

Seven people were confirmed killed and another four remain missing after the collapse, which came as heavy rains drenched the region, according to sources in Gaza.

In a bid to keep a lid on the disaster, the group, which is the de facto ruler in Gaza, prevented local media from reporting the incident, which occurred in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in northeastern Gaza City.

Hamas accused Israel of causing the collapse by opening dams to flood Gaza with water — an annual claim made by Palestinians and flatly rejected by Israel.

The nature of the tunnel in question was not immediately clear. Hamas has in the past dug cross-border tunnels into Israel in order to stage attacks on civilians and soldiers. Other tunnels are used by the terror group as part of its defensive infrastructure.

It has recently been reported that Hamas has accelerated its tunnel-digging program.

Hamas has built dozens of tunnels into Israel, many of which were used to carry out attacks during the 2014 conflict with Israel. The IDF said it destroyed over 30 tunnels at the time, but officials have expressed concern that the terror group is seeking to rebuild the infrastructure.

The Strip has been subject to a blockade by both Egypt and Israel, designed in part to prevent the terror group from importing arms and building new tunnels reinforced with concrete.

Egypt has embarked on a massive campaign aimed at stemming cross-border smuggling between Gaza and Sinai, where it is fighting an insurgency by Islamist militants. The operation has included flooding hundreds of tunnels that once dotted the border region and building a 500-meter-wide buffer zone filled with seawater.

ISIS Recruiting Rebel Groups in Southern Syria Near Israeli Border

The war against ISIS is taking a dangerous, perhaps inevitable turn

The terror organization has been keen to expand to southern Syria and the Syrian capital of Damascus. Now it says it has recruited three Syrian rebel groups operating in the south of the country in an area bordering the Israeli occupied Golan Heights — that have switched their loyalties to ISIS.

This switch means that Israel, the U.S.’s closest ally in the Middle East, could be threatened from the southwest by the Egyptian ISIS group of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis in Sinai and by ISIS in southern Syria.

Of course, they have tried attacking Israel from two directions before, even from 3 directions, and Israel still stands. 

The ISIS war is not going well at all for the US-led alliance in Syria. ISIS and al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, are still the dominant rebel groups in the country. The U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army is still not a reliable fighting force.

The three rebel groups that just joined ISIS could make that situation even worse. Two of the groups are small in number, but the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade has hundreds of fighters. The Yarmouk Brigades has been at odds with al-Nusra Front and switched now to join what leaders of all thrwee groups believe is the future of Islam.

“If Israel was attacked by ISIS, America would expect a proportionate response by Israel, which is militarily capable of defending itself,” said Geoffrey Levin, a professor at New York University. “America would counsel against sustained Israeli involvement because it could threaten the tacit alliance between America, Iran, Turkey, and several Arab states against ISIS.”

“More recent reports indicated a closer alliance with [the Islamic State] due to tensions with JN [al-Nusra Front],” said Jasmine Opperman, a researcher at Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium (TRAC). She said al-Nusra attacked the headquarters of the Yarmouk Brigade in southern Syria in early December 2014 following clashes between the two groups.

Al-Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade controlled an area near the Jordan-Israel border in March 2013. That same month, the brigade took as hostages some of the United Nations peacekeeping mission soldiers. Even so, Israel reportedly allowed the brigade to have its wounded fighters treated in Israeli hospitals.

ISIS has been known for launching surprise attacks and opening new battlefronts when it seems to be losing. ISIS also has been criticized by many Arabs and Muslims for not taking its fight to Israel and instead fighting fellow Arabs and Muslims. An attack aimed at Israel may boost ISIS’s popularity in the Arab world and refresh its recruitment and funding efforts.

On the other hand, some of ISIS’s top military commanders were former officers in Saddam Hussein’s army, and they may resort to what Saddam did in the 1991 Gulf War when he attacked Israel with mid-range rockets, hoping to drag the Israelis into a conflict that he was losing.

An Israeli retaliation in 1991 could have jeopardized the U.S-led coalition that then included Arab countries like Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia. The same is true now.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Despite some recent tensions between the countries, Israel remains America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Attacks on Israel by ISIS or affiliated groups could further escalate war in the region, or they could further strain ties between the Obama administration and the Israeli government.

“It would be more likely a sign of desperation, as were Saddam’s attempts to lure Israel into the 1991 war as a way of breaking the Arab coalition against him,” said NYU’s Levin. At that time, continuous pressure from the first Bush administration and the installation of the Patriot anti-rocket system convinced the Israelis to refrain from reacting to Saddam’s attack.

Israel could launch a preemptive attack to destroy or significantly damage these ISIS-affiliated units whether by air or by ground forces. Israel used its advanced air force to launch attacks in Syria several times since the beginning of Syrian civil war in 2011.

Egypt 'Plans Buffer' in Sinai Against Gaza Smugglers

Goods smuggled through tunnels under the border with Egypt
are a mainstay of Gaza's economy

Egypt is reportedly planning to create a 500m buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip to block the smuggling of weapons.

Residents living along the border with the Palestinian territory were told to evacuate their homes so that they can be demolished, local media reports.

Water-filled trenches will also be used to prevent the construction of tunnels.

Egyptian media accuses Gaza's Hamas administration of aiding militants in the Sinai. Hamas denies the charge.

Last week, more than 30 Egyptian soldiers were killed in a militant bomb attack on an army post in Sinai.

After the bombing, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi passed a law authorising the military to protect state facilities - including power plants, main roads and bridges.

He also declared a three-month state of emergency in Sinai. Critics of the move said it allows the army to return to the streets and brings back military trials for civilians.

The planned buffer zone will reportedly stretch along the length of the 13km (8 mile) border.

Officials told the Associated Press news agency that the army had given residents 48 hours to leave their homes, but this ultimatum had been put on hold after protests.

Tunnels linking the Gaza Strip and Sinai have also played a vital role in the economy of the Palestinian territory, which has been struggling to cope with an economic blockade imposed by Israel in its confrontation with Hamas.

Clearly, this reporter is sympathetic to Gazans, and I can certainly understand that. But the reporter neglects to mention that the tunnels were also used to smuggle all sorts of weapons into Gaza for Hamas to use against Israel. Cutting off that supply should mean that it will be a long time before last summers war will be repeated with similar intensity.

Good for al-Sisi.

If Gaza wants their economic blockade lifted, all they have to do is to stop trying to kill Israelis.

9 High Budget Biblical Based Movies to Come Out in 2014

It appears that there will be at least 9 movies coming out in 2014 that will be based, at least somewhat, on the Bible. Links to the trailers are there for the first three. 

In Son of God and Noah, it is obvious, even from the trailers that the directors have taken some privileges with the Scriptures. Let's hope, and pray, that they at least get the basic gospel right. 

The movies were not inspired by a sudden revival in Hollywood, but by the unexpected success if the mini-series The Bible. It's all about the money!

Son of God will release just before Easter and will re-tell the story of the birth, life, ministry death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado has the lead role. [click on link to see trailer]

 Noah is a $125 million extravaganza starring Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson will play his adopted daughter(??),  and Jennifer Connelly about the catastrophic judgment of mankind recorded in the Book of Genesis and one man and his family who are saved. It releases March 28th. [click on link to see trailer]

Heaven Is For Real will release on April 16th, based on the New York Times best-selling non-fiction book about a boy who dies, but after being brought back to life by a team of doctors tells his family that he went to heaven while he was dead and describes what he saw in vivid detail. [click on link to see trailer]

The saint-like image of a hooded woman looms out from the movie poster, her arms outstretched as a divine light bursts from the sky. A message written above is simple and unambiguous: “You Will Believe.” So goes the promotional campaign for the forthcoming Hollywood blockbuster Mary Mother of Christ....whose title character will be played by Odeya Rush, a 16-year-old Israeli-born actress, is one of a series of unashamedly Christian biblical epics due to appear next year, marking an unprecedented overture by Hollywood to America’s evangelical heartland.
It will be interesting to see if this movie is made by Catholics and deifys Mary.

Noah will be followed by Sir Ridley Scott’s Exodus, in which Christian Bale,   as Moses, will part the Red Sea. Scenes from ancient Egypt have been   reconstructed in southern Spain, with Bale wielding a bow and arrow (??) and   Sigourney Weaver playing the Pharaoh’s wife.

Another movie of Moses’s life called Gods and Kings is also planned. Steven Spielberg was due to make it but has been replaced by Ang Lee, who won the Best Director Oscar this year for Life of Pi.

Will Smith is said to be planning a film based on the story of Cain and Abel.

Brad Pitt is rumoured to be playing Pontius Pilate in a separate project.

There will also be Resurrection, in which a Roman soldier is sent to investigate Christ’s death. It has been likened to “Gladiator, with a mystery bent."

I've been waiting a long time to see a movie based on the life of Paul. Guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

There is No Limit to Man's Cruelty to Man, or Woman, or Child

Up to 30,000 Eritreans have been abducted since 2007 and taken to Egypt's Sinai to suffer torture and ransom demands, new research says.

The study, presented to the European parliament, says Eritrean and Sudanese security officers are colluding with the kidnap gangs.

At least $600m (£366m) has been extorted from families in ransom payments, it says.

Victims are kidnapped in Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea and taken to Sinai.

Eritrea has denied its officials are involved in the kidnappings.

Most of those targeted are Eritrean refugees fleeing the country, says the report - The Human Trafficking

Almost every Eritrean knows somebody who has been held hostage”, says Meron Estefanos, rights activist.

Meron Estefanos Rights activist

 "Their captors are opportunistic criminals looking to profit from their vulnerability," the report says.

"[The victims] are then taken to the Sinai and sold, sometimes more than once, to Bedouin groups living in the Sinai."

The report was authored by Meron Estefanos, an Eritrean human rights activist in Sweden, and Prof Mirjam van Reisen and Dr Conny Rijken of Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

The report says Eritrea's Border Surveillance Unit (BSU) and Sudanese security officials are among the "actors" colluding with the gangs that hold people hostage in the the largely lawless Sinai.

"[The hostages] are chained together without toilets or washing facilities and dehydrated, starved and deprived of sleep," the report says.

"They are subject to threats of death and organ harvesting... Those who attempt to escape are severely tortured." 

This is hardly believable, and yet, there is no limit to man's cruelty to man, or woman, or child.

Ms Meron told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme that one of her cousins was freed after a ransom of $37,000 was paid.

The cousin was abducted in Sudan, before being taken to Sinai where her captors tortured and raped her, Ms Meron said.

"Almost every Eritrean knows somebody who has been held hostage. It's a very common thing," she told the BBC.

The report said the trafficking would have been impossible without the direct involvement of Eritrean security officials, given the "restrictions on movement within the country, the requirement of exit visas at the border and the shoot-to-kill policy for illegal border crossings".

However, Eritrea's UK ambassador, Tesfamichael Gerahtu, said Eritrea was a "victim of human trafficking".

The government was "working hard" to arrest and bring to justice criminal gangs operating along its border, he told Focus on Africa.

The UN estimates that 3,000 Eritreans fled their repressive and impoverished country each month last year.

Many headed for the swollen refugee camps of neighbouring eastern Sudan, now home to more than 90,000 people.