IDF reveals to ‘Post’: How Hamas exploits Gaza side of Rafah Crossing

By admin On May 23, 2024

As part of the IDF’s securing of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing, soldiers came across incriminating evidence that at least part of the staff at the crossing also served in Hamas’s militia, the Al-Qassam brigades.

A worker’s pass from the Rafah crossing maintenance department was retrieved, belonging to a worker named Nasser Kamal Ghizan Abu Mousa, alongside another card of his depicting him as a member of Hamas’s Ezedeen Al-Qassam brigades. The Al-Qassam card also read, “Please facilitate the tasks of this card’s holder.”

“The IDF’s mission in the Rafah crossing revolves around cleansing the area from Hamas’s terror activity and to make sure that the goods brought into the Gaza Strip will make it to Gazan citizens, rather than Hamas terrorists,” a military source told The Jerusalem Post.

“There are other terrorists linked to the crossing, which we will expose in the future,” the source said. “This is but one of a series of findings providing evidence to the fact that Hamas has been clandestinely running affairs de facto, exploiting the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing for its own survival.”

The source highlighted the fact that in recent weeks, IDF forces have uncovered tunnel shafts in the area of the Rafah crossing that Hamas uses for attacking purposes. “This also demonstrates how Hamas exercised control over the vicinity of the crossing.”

DISPLACED PALESTINIANS, who fled Rafah as the IDF began evacuating civilians ahead of a threatened assault, travel on a vehicle in Khan Yunis, earlier this month. Israel has taken unprecedented measures to protect civilians, the writer asserts. (credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters)

Hamas attacks entry points for humanitarian aid

In the same context, Hamas has been repeatedly firing rockets aimed at the Kerem Shalom crossing and its surroundings from the Rafah crossing area, exploiting these areas to threaten aid convoys trying to reach the citizens of Gaza.

Despite ruling the Gaza Strip de facto since the last round of elections and its bloody coup more than two decades ago, over the years, Hamas officials have denied responsibility for their constituency in Gaza.

In October, Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk implied that the terrorist group’s tunnel network was only meant to protect Hamas members, while the rest of Gaza’s citizens fall under the jurisdiction of UNRWA or Israel. Likewise, several Hamas leaders escaped the Gaza Strip to the safety of their patrons in Doha or elsewhere a few days before the October 7 massacre to avoid facing Israeli retaliation.

JPost