Hamas Official: Tunnels Are For Protecting Terrorists, Not Palestinian Civilians

Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk confirmed during a recent interview that the hundreds of miles of tunnels underneath Gaza are to protect Hamas terrorists, not Palestinian civilians, from Israeli airstrikes.

The remarks come after Hamas launched an unprecedented terrorist attack on October 7 in which terrorists murdered 1,400 Israelis, wounded 5,300+, and kidnapped well over 200 people.

Marzouk made the remarks during an October 27, 2023, interview that was captured and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The interviewer asked Marzouk: “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?”

“We have built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being targeted and killed,” he responded. “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,” he continued. “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 commits war crimes by placing their tunnels near and underneath churches, schools, and hospitals.

WATCH:

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

Hamas leader Isamil Haniyeh called last week for Palestinian civilians to die in Israel’s strikes because he believes that it will help Hamas defeat Israel.

“I call on everybody – all the free people of the world, all the friendly countries, all the brotherly [Arab] countries, and all the allies – to exert all the necessary pressure, in all directions and in all forums, in order to end the aggression against Gaza, to stop this war against our children, women, and elderly, our mosques, our universities, and our homes,” he said. “This brutal aggression must stop. This new holocaust must stop.”

“I have said this before, and I say it time again: The blood of the women, children, and elderly… I am not saying that this blood is calling for your [help],” he continued. “We are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit, so it awakens within us resolve, so it awakens within us the spirit of challenge, and [pushes us] to move forward.”

Related: Hamas Leader: ‘Women, Children, Elderly’ Must Die In Gaza To Help Our Fight Against Israel