Hamas on Wednesday buries two fighters killed in a tunnel collapse, as concern grows in Israel over the rebuilding of underground passageways that could be used for attacks.
Hundreds of men, many armed and wearing balaclavas, take part in the funeral.
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, calls the two men “martyrs” and praises “those who work silently underground for us to live in dignity on earth.”
The collapse was the second such incident since last week. A tunnel collapse caused by bad weather on January 26 killed seven terrorists.
Israeli concerns increased on Friday after Haniyeh, in comments at the seven men’s funeral, highlighted the growth of new tunnels.
— AFP, Times of Israel staff
Palestinian members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement during the funeral of fellow militant Ahmed al-Zahar in the village of Al-Moghraga near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on February 3, 2016. (AFP / MAHMUD HAMS)
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
