Since the last military conflict in Gaza in July-August 2014, Hamas has been working to restore and build up its strength in advance of the next conflict with Israel – renewing its excavation of tunnels and manufacture of rockets, building up its weapons stores, conducting military training exercises, and establishing army camps.
Senior movement officials are calling repeatedly for liberating all of Palestine, praising and encouraging jihad, martyrdom, and armed resistance.
In recent days, Hamas’ Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades have boasted that their bases close to the Israeli border have been repaired and are ready to confront Israel’s military.
Hamas is once again diverting concrete designated for rebuilding people’s homes and using it to build tunnels and bunkers.
Similarly, while the international community picks up the bill for Gaza’s humanitarian needs, Hamas has found the resources to open 18 new terror training camps.
While Israel is easing restrictions on the flow of goods and people across its Gaza border, the Egyptian blockade of Gaza has now become almost total.
The fighters in Gaza are preparing for a new war every day.
“Many of the men have moved underground,” says Abu Mujahid, 40, a commander in the Nasser Salahuddin Brigade of the Popular Resistance Committees. “There are people right now under your feet,” his second-in-command, Abu Saif, 28, adds.
Yet for all the bluster, the fighters begrudgingly acknowledge that the civilian population probably cannot weather another war. Eight months after the last war, Gaza is still flattened.
Most Gaza residents have just three to six hours of electricity a day. The water in the taps is salty because seawater has infiltrated the coastal aquifer. Sewage is openly flowing onto the beaches.
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}
