Hamas Military Capabilities Restored to Pre-2014 War Strength

The Fellowship | February 1, 2017

PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-TUNISIA-CONFLICT-ZAUOURI — Members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, attend a memorial in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on January 31, 2017, for Mohamed Zouari, a 49-year-old Tunisian engineer and drone expert, who was murdered at the wheel of his car outside his house in Tunisia in December 2016. The armed wing of Hamas said that the Jewish state was responsible for the murder in eastern Tunisia, of Mohamed Zaouari, described as a leader of the Islamist movement specializing in the development of drones. / AFP / SAID KHATIB (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images)

During 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, the IDF was able to destroy much of Hamas’ terror infrastructure. However, reports The Times of Israel’s Tamar Pileggi, the Gaza-based terror group has rehabbed their military capabilities – including their terror tunnel network and their arsenal of rockets aimed at Israel:

The military capabilities of Hamas in Gaza have reportedly been restored to their strength pre-2014, when the Islamist terror group fought a war with Israel that depleted much of its arsenal and battered much of its military infrastructure.

Senior military and defense officials said Hamas’s network of cross-border tunnels and its missile arsenal have been fully restored, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported.

The report caps two years in which Hamas, the de facto ruling power in Gaza, sought to rebuild its military capabilities, including thousands of missiles, small arms, and a network of tunnels, many of which crossed into Israel…

During the 2014 war, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, cross-border tunnels were a key weapon for Hamas, allowing its fighters to infiltrate Israeli territory and launch attacks against Israeli soldiers.

Israel destroyed about a third of its tunnels in the 2014 fighting.

According to the report on Tuesday, much of Hamas’s arsenal was restored using makeshift materials already found in the Strip, but Israeli officials fear detente between Hamas and Egypt could lead to the opening of the Rafah border crossing and the possible import of materials that can build up its capabilities further.

Hamas on Tuesday displayed its military hardware at a memorial rally held in honor of a Hamas drone expert assassinated in Tunisia last month…