Hamas Leader Explains Why 500 KM of Tunnels for Terrorists Are Built in Gaza, But No Bomb Shelters for Palestinian Civilians (Video)

A Hamas official spoke with Russia Today last week and was asked why Hamas has built 500 kilometers of tunnels but has not built bomb shelters for civilians. The answer was callously honest: Hamas built the tunnels to protect their fighters so they could attack Israel. As for Palestinians civilians? Let the United Nations (and Israel) take care of them.

An interview clip of the October 27 interview on RT with member of the Hamas Political Bureau Mousa Abu Marzouk was posted and translated by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute)

Interviewer: “Many people are asking: Since you have built 500 kilometers of tunnels, why haven’t you built bomb shelters, where civilians can hide during bombardment?”

Mousa Abu Marzouk: “We have built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being targeted and killed. These tunnels are meant to protect us from the airplanes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels. Everybody knows that 75% of the people in the Gaza Strip are refugees, and it is the responsibility of the United Nations to protect them. According to the Geneva Convention, it is the responsibility of the occupation to provide them with all the services as long as they are under occupation.”

Hamas Official Mousa Abu Marzouk: The Tunnels in Gaza Were Built to Protect Hamas Fighters, Not Civilians; Protecting Gaza Civilians Is the Responsibility of the U.N. and Israel #Hamas #Gaza pic.twitter.com/LlIVcQX6dt

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 30, 2023

A recent Reuters report included video taken of the Hamas tunnels in 2014:

One freed hostage described Hamas’ tunnel network under the Gaza Strip as ‘a spider’s web.’ Security sources say the tunnels stretch for hundreds of kilometers and present a hidden frontline for Israeli forces in Gaza https://t.co/PmgTfn1ROq pic.twitter.com/notNvM1QME

— Reuters (@Reuters) October 27, 2023

Vice News report on the Hamas tunnels from 2021:

There’s been a lot of talk recently of the tunnels that Hamas controls in Gaza.

The hostages who were released mentioned them and others have discussed how they’re used to hide and smuggle weapons.

In 2021, VICE’s @IsobelYeung agreed to be blindfolded and led to one of Hamas… pic.twitter.com/zVX5u7NuHT

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 26, 2023

Wikipedia details Mousa Abu Marzouk’s ties to terrorism (excerpt):

In the mid-1990s Marzook was arrested in JFK airport in the US, although no formal charges placed against him. Two months after his detainment, Israel filed a request for the United States to extradite him. Represented by Stanley L. Cohen,[8] he spent the following 2 years fighting his case in the court system, but the final decision was for his extradition, after which Israel dropped its extradition request. With no formal charges against him the United States released him, but not wanting him to remain, the United States contacted numerous Arab countries to allow Marzook residency. All refused, except Jordan, which reportedly agreed under U.S. pressure.[citation needed] Cohen continues to legally represent Marzook.[6]

Marzook was listed as a Specially Designated Terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department in 1995, and is currently on the renamed Treasury department Specially Designated National list under such alternative spellings of his name as Dr. Musa Abu-Marzuq, Sa’id Abu-Marzuq, Mousa Mohamed Abou Marzook, Musa Abu Marzouk, and Musa Abu Marzuk, and under the alias “Abu-‘Umar.”[9]

In 2002, a federal grand jury in Dallas returned an indictment against Marzook for conspiring to violate U.S. laws that prohibit dealings in terrorist funds. The indictment alleged that Marzook had conspired with the Richardson, Texas-based InfoCom Corporation and five of its employees to hide his financial transactions with the computer company. He allegedly invested $250,000 in InfoCom, with Infocom to make payments to Marzook based on the company’s net profits or losses.[10]

In 2004 Ismail Elbarasse was detained by police in Maryland west of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge after Baltimore County police officers said they saw a woman (his wife) in the vehicle videotaping the Bridge, including footage of the cables and upper supports of the main span. Elbarasse was an assistant to Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, and was named an unindicted co-conspirator by a grand jury in Chicago after authorities searched the home and vehicle of Elbarasse and found bank records belonging to Marzook, deputy chief of Hamas’s political wing. A federal indictment charged Marzook in an alleged conspiracy that authorities said raised millions of dollars for Hamas.[11]

In 2004, a U.S. court indicted him in absentia for coordinating and financing Hamas activities.[12]

The Wikipedia entry also notes Marzouk studied in the United States: “Marzook’s parents were from Yibna, Mandatory Palestine (now Yavne, Israel).[1] They became refugees after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and were forced to move to the Rafah Camp in the Gaza Strip.[1] Marzook was born there on 9 January 1951.[1] He completed high school in Gaza, studied engineering in Cairo until 1976, and then looked for work in the Persian Gulf.[1] He continued his studies in the U.S. obtaining a master’s degree in construction management from Colorado State University.[1][2]”