While Israelis were welcoming the rain to feed the parched earth — even though it caused power outages and shut down operations throughout the country — Gaza’s water-logged sands became a muddy mass grave for cold, wet Hamas terror tunnel diggers.
Jews pray three times a day for rain to assure the Creator’s promise to give “rain for your land at the proper time, the early rain and the late rain.” Otherwise, God warns He “will close the heavens so that there will be no rain and the earth will not yield its produce…” (Deuteronomy 11:13-21)
It’s more than enough reason to pray, and pray they do. In return, Heaven sent a three-day howler this week that showered down everything with gale-force winds, from snow to sleet to hail to rain, from Metullah and the Golan Heights straight down south to the Negev, and Gaza.
Officials at Israel’s Water Authority were pleased to see that the water level in Lake Kinneret (Israel’s primary source of drinking water) rose three centimeters. Elsewhere around Israel green things began popping up as well.
But there was a holy disaster down south where the water-logged sands of Gaza sank under the weight of the downpour. A second terror tunnel being built in the area of Jabalya collapsed on the hapless diggers who were being forced to continue their labors despite the bad weather.
Numerous local sources confided in tweets on social media that the worsening weather had also caused flooding in nearly all the homes and caravans in the area.
Eight are reported dead so far, three others were dragged out, badly injured. Contact with the Hamas diggers was lost Tuesday night, according to Palestinian Authority media. Their bodies were dragged out from the mud and brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Walla! News reported.
But the official Gaza government is trying to keep the news of the deaths under wraps. Not even one new announcement of an al-Qassam “wedding” appears on the Hamas military wing’s Iz a-Din al-Qassam website — unlike the death of its lone digger on Saturday. On Sunday, Hamas proudly posted a notice about the death of Mohammed Ashour al-Naj’ar, 31, on the homepage of its military website. “Al Qassam Brigades wed Mukahid Mohammed al-Najjar, who ascended after the collapse of the tunnel for the resistance,” the group announced.
After Tuesday’s cave-in a spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health entirely denied the deaths, saying no bodies were brought to the hospital after the collapse.
Likewise, a security source linked to Hamas told foreign journalists the eight diggers were still missing, according to a report published Wednesday in Lebanon’s Daily Star. “The resistance tunnel collapsed last night due to the weather and flooding,” the source said. “There were 11 resistance men inside. Three of them escaped in the first hour after the accident, but the security operation… continues to search for the eight others.”
It’s important for Hamas to keep its “fighters” building those tunnels. Iran has sent tens of millions of dollars to help rebuild its underground terror tunnel network. This way Hamas and its ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad can wage another proxy war against Israel on behalf of Tehran.
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