Assaf Shariv, the Israeli Consul in New York, told The Bulletin Thursday the Israeli government is “extremely concerned” that Palestinian terror groups have started rebuilding the arms tunnels in Rafah. The tunnels, located along the Egyptian/Gaza border, are used to for smuggling purposes, and many of them were demolished by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) during the recent Israeli offensive.

A high-ranking security source told the Israeli Ha’aretz newspaper Hamas has started to rebuild the smuggling system along Philadelphi Road.

“These are the greatest experts in the Middle East at digging tunnels, and they aren’t going to wait a single moment. They’re now busy with propaganda trying to show the Palestinian street that they defeated the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), along with rebuilding the military and governmental system,” the source said. “To that end they’re going to need the tunnels to smuggle various types of equipment, and not only of a military nature.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he had spoken with President Barack Obama about the renewed smuggling. Mr. Olmert told the Israeli media that he congratulated the president for his inauguration and had “apprised the president of the situation in Gaza and said that he hoped the efforts of Israel, Egypt, the U.S. and the European countries to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza would succeed.”

<!–
AdSys ad not found for news/world:instory –>

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Previous articleIslamic Terrorists Forming Cells In America
Next articleHamas Proposal: Calm In Fighting For A Year And A Half?Ӭ
David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR