Rockets/Tunnels

Ya, some media told about it. But truth is to be exposed.

Father Manuel Musallam is the Catholic Priest of more than 3500 Christians in Gaza. He voted for Al Fatah in 2006 election but today he is a big supporter of Hamas, which was declared terrorist by USA many years ago.

I came to know from a Palestinian journalist in Gaza that Father Manuel is trying to bridge gaps between Al Fatah and Hamas. It was a surprising news for me and I decided to meet him.

I met him in his church from where he is looking after the Holy Family School of Gaza, which has more than 1200 students. Over 1,000 students of Holy Family School are Muslims and the rest are Christians. His school is a glittering example of Muslim-Christian harmony in Gaza.

Father Manuel very proudly informed me that "many Hamas leaders are also sending their children to my school because I am not preaching Christianity in Gaza, I am rather spreading the light of knowledge in my nation". He declared him first an Arab, then a Palestinian and then a Christian.

Father Manuel said that Hamas is not terrorist. Hamas represents a very big number of Palestinians. He was disappointed from the peace process initiated by US many years ago in Oslo. He said that "its not only me who is disappointed from Oslo talks, majority of Palestinians are disappointed and Hamas is the reaction of this disappointment and Israel cannot wipe out Hamas through the bombing of F-16 planes, this bombing will provide more strength to Hamas".

When I asked him that new US President Barak Obama condemned the rockets fired by Hamas and not condemned the Israeli bombing on mosques, schools and hospitals, Father Manuel was irritated. He aggressively said that Hamas was not firing any rockets before 2002 then why Israelis bombed Palestinians before 2002? He asked that if Israel will not allow us to live peacefully and honorably then how can we stop our angry boys to fire toy rockets on Israelis?

He declared that "Israel in not serious in resolving the Palestinian problem, Israel want us to become their slave, they have turned Gaza into the biggest jail in the world, today Palestinians have to choose between death and slavery and we are ready to die for our liberation if this is terrorism, let Barak Obama declare me a terrorist".

Its not only the Father Manuel Musallam who rejected the Israeli-US justification of bombing Palestinians but majority of the Western journalists and aid workers in Gaza also believe that Hamas rockets were not creating any big problem for Israel. They are sure that main aim of Israeli attack was to win votes for coming elections in Israel. Immediately after starting attacks Israel claimed that main objective of bombing was to wipe out Hamas and destroy tunnels along Palestine-Egypt border.

But the fact is that Hamas has gained more power and popularity after Israeli attacks and Palestinians are now digging more tunnels from their side of Rafah Crossing to Egypt. Many journalists including myself visited the area famous for tunnels. It was interesting to watch that Palestinians were busy in digging more and more tunnels with drilling machines and bulldozers. They were not Hamas fighters. They were local Palestinians belong to the families of Abu Samhadana and Abu Rish. This is their family business from many years. They dig approximately 15 meters deep and 800 to 3000 meters long tunnels from inside their houses. They smuggle food items mainly vegetables, meat, cigarettes, cooking oil, petrol, gas canisters and sometimes weapons for Hamas.

I counted myself 187 destroyed tunnels and I also counted more than 300 new under construction tunnels .One tunnel owner told me "I make 2000 US dollars a week by transporting food items from Egypt to Palestine. We don't work for Hamas because it is very difficult to buy weapons for Hamas in Egypt, nobody can smuggle weapons from Egypt, it's a lie". When I tried to confront with some Palestinians that digging tunnels is violation of international law and smuggling from these tunnels is a crime. They started laughing. They said what international law? Israel is violating international law from 1947, Israel is killing Palestinians ruthlessly for more than 62 years, and Israel has blocked the delivery of food, oil, gas and even medicines to Gaza. Israel bombed our schools, hospitals and even the parliament. What action was taken by international community against Israel? If Israel is not accountable for the holocaust of Palestinians then we are not accountable for any smuggling of food items.

UN spokesman in Gaza Adnan Abu Hasna told me that the tunnels are now the only source of daily food supplies to Palestinians. He accepted that tunnels are illegal but he was forced to ask that "do you think that Israelis had any legal cover killing more than 1350 people in three weeks?" Adnan Abu Hasna said that the whole infrastructure of Gaza was destroyed and now Israel has blocked the transportation of building material inside Gaza. He estimated that Gaza will take at least 10 years to rebuild but the peace process will take at least 20 years to rebuild now.

Hamas leader Ehab Alghusian said that now he has no hope from the so-called peace process. He accepted that "Palestinians need unity today and Hamas meeting with Al Fatah leaders in Cairo was very good but we will not support any peace talks with Israel because majority of Palestinians are now ready to die for their liberation". Ehab was talking the language of Catholic priest Father Manuel Mussalam or may be Catholic priest was talking the language of Hamas or may be both of them were talking the language of majority of Palestinians.