Tunnels built by us are just to protect our men, civilians in Gaza are Israel's responsibility: Hamas official

The tunnels built by Hamas are meant to protect terrorists and are not for civilian use, an official of the terrorist group has said.

In an interview translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said, “We have built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being targeted and killed. These tunnels are meant to protect us from airplanes. We are fighting inside the tunnels.”

Marzouk’s statements came after the interviewer asked him why Hamas has constructed over 500 kilometers of tunnels rather than building bomb shelters.

Hamas Official Mousa Abu Marzouk: The Tunnels in Gaza Were Built to Protect Hamas Fighters, Not Civilians; Protecting Gaza Civilians Is the Responsibility of the U.N. and Israel #Hamas #Gaza pic.twitter.com/LlIVcQX6dt

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 30, 2023

“Everybody knows that 75% of the people in the Gaza Strip are refugees, and it is the responsibility of the United Nations to protect them,” the Hamas official said.

“According to the Geneva Conventions, it is the responsibility of the occupation to provide them with all the services as long as they are under occupation,” he added.

Last week, the Israeli military accused Hamas of using the main hospital in Gaza as a shield for its tunnels and operational centres.

“Hamas has turned hospitals into command and control centres and hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesman, told a news conference.

He showed photographs, diagrams and audio recordings he said showed how Hamas was using the hospital system and Al Shifa Hospital in particular to hide a variety of command posts and entry points into the extensive tunnel network under Gaza.

With inputs from Reuters