Hamas turns Gaza terror tunnels into summer tourist attraction

The Gaza-based Hamas terrorist group appears to branching into the field of local tourism, turning underground tunnels constructed to carry out cross-border attacks on Israeli communities into the latest summer attraction for Gazan youth.

Video footage posted to Facebook by Afaq, a pro-Hamas media outlet in Gaza, shows lines of children walking through the tunnels decorated with posters of Hamas operatives apparently killed by Israel. In one shot, a guide wearing a florescent yellow jacket can be seen directing the children.

According to the post, the tunnel tours are taking place in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, and form part of a Hamas exhibition displaying weapons and methods used in the “resistance” against Israel.

“Afaq media enters a tunnel created by the Qassam Brigades during a weapons exhibition in Shejaiya on the anniversary [of the war],” reads the text introducing the video, referring to Hamas’s armed wing. The exhibition was said to be “open to any citizen or media for videos and publishing.”

Palestinian users of social media posted photos of the weapons display as well as images showing children attending Hamas summer camps on a hike through one of the tunnels.

#كتائب_القسام تقيم معرض لأنواع من الأسلحة تملكها المقاومة داخل أحد مخيمات "طلائع التحرير" التي تقيمها في قطاع #غزة pic.twitter.com/lRIxQgUTrp

— شبكة العاصمة الإخبارية (@alasimannews) July 20, 2016

The Gaza conflict, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, began on July 8, 2014 and lasted for 50 days. During the operation Israel uncovered and destroyed 36 tunnels leading from Gaza into Israel.

Those tunnels were used during the war on a number of occasions to ambush IDF soldiers, to devastating effect.

During the conflict, 66 Israeli soldiers and six civilians were killed, while Hamas said approximately 2,000 Gazans died, some 50 percent of them civilians. The exact figures remain mired in controversy nearly two years later, however, with Palestinians putting the civilian casualty rate closer to 70% and Israelis calculating it to be 36%.

#صور نفق تدريبي داخل أحد مخيمات "طلائع التحرير" الصيفية التي تنظمها كتائب القسام في #غزة #عدسة | عطية درويش pic.twitter.com/Uu7I6deQN7

— شبكة فلسطين للحوار (@paldf) July 20, 2016

Israel previously launched operations in Gaza in December 2008 and November 2012 in an effort to curb attacks on its population from inside the coastal enclave it evacuated in 2005.

Hamas has bragged since the 2014 war that it is rebuilding a network of attack tunnels under the Israeli border — two of which were exposed by Israel this spring — and restocking its arsenals while testing more potent rockets for future use against Israel.

Since April, the IDF has discovered two tunnels leading into Israeli territory, and the Shin Bet says it has captured a number of Gazans who have given them extensive information on the tunnel system.

The first tunnel found ran at a depth of approximately 100 feet (30-40 meters) below ground, extending dozens of meters inside Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has labored for over a decade to find a technological or physical answer to Hamas tunnels under the border.

Following the conflict, Israel invested an estimated NIS 1 billion (approximately $250 million) into developing a detection system to locate such tunnels.

Dov Lieber contributed to this report.