$40 million of the annual total goes to terror group’s tunnel digging work, which employs 1,500 Palestinians. Gaza’s Islamist rulers also investing in weapons aimed at bypassing Iron Dome anti-missile system, and in more precise rockets
As the residents of the Gaza Strip endure daily hardships due to the dire economic situation in the enclave, their Hamas leaders spend over $100 million a year on the group’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, according to estimates by both Israeli and Palestinian sources. Spending on digging tunnels accounts for some $40 million of that annual sum.
By way of comparison, the budget of the last Hamas government, which dissolved in April 2014, was $530 million. In other words, some 20 percent of the budget was funneled toward arming the group with advanced weapons, digging tunnels, training, and salaries for Hamas fighters.
Some 1,500 Hamas members from various brigades are currently employed in tunnel digging. The average salary for an excavator is $250-$400 a month – relatively high for the Strip, where unemployment is rampant. The diggers also receive bonuses and incentives for meeting deadlines set by the Hamas military leadership. Veteran diggers receive higher salaries than others.
The military wing of Hamas continues to be helmed by the Muhammed Deif, who serves as a chief of staff, while Yahya Sinwar serves as a defense minister and liaison with the political wing. Under them, Marwan Issa, Deif’s aide de camp, deals with building up the group’s military capabilities. Reporting to Issa are various commanders of different brigades and areas, such as defense industries and others.
The military wing has continued to develop its capabilities over the past two years in anticipation of another possible war with Israel. Among other things, Hamas has been investing in weapons that could bypass the Iron Dome anti-missile system and in more precise rockets than those it possessed in the summer of 2014, when it fought a 50-day war with Israel.
As part of this effort, Hamas, an Islamist terror group avowedly committed to destroying Israel, has allocated tremendous resources to smuggling materials into the Strip that can be used for building weapons, mostly from Israel, but also by sea or through smuggling tunnels from the Sinai Peninsula.
Last week, the Egyptian military exposed one such 2.5-kilometer-long tunnel. At the Gaza border with Egypt, Hamas uses a large workforce along with bulldozers and tractors to dig tunnels, with work occasionally taking place right under the noses of Egyptian soldiers.
In the smuggling efforts from Sinai to Gaza, senior officials from the Sinai affiliate of the Islamic State also play a role, working closely with Hamas military leaders in the southern Strip. The man in charge of coordination between IS and Hamas is Abd al-Rahman Barhame, who is in Gaza as a guest of Hamas’s military wing.
Other Islamic State officials responsible for coordination with Hamas also reside in the coastal enclave, preserving the ties between the two terror groups despite Egypt’s objections, largely without informing the Hamas political leadership of these activities.
