By Elisabeth Hinze
I often think about the evening of 7 July 2014. I was huddled under a blanket on the roof of my house in central Jerusalem. Mid-summer in Jerusalem still brings some chilly evenings. Down below the streets were teaming. Groups have started gathering on Zion Square carrying placards and chanting slogans. Some asked for talks. Others demanded action. The pain of three murdered Israeli teenagers found in the West Bank was fresh. The shock and disbelief about the Palestinian teenager murdered in apparent revenge equally raw. Rockets from Gaza had been raining down on the south of Israel in a steady barrage. Prime Minister Netanyahu asked Hamas nicely to stop. They didn’t. He asked again, less nicely this time. The rockets increased. Then came the warning, “Stop. Or we will stop you.” Just after 8pm that evening, Hamas launched 60 rockets from Gaza on Israel in 30 minutes.
As I stood on the roof peering down on the mass of humanity below, the emotions were palpable. Anger, resolve, fear, a steely resignation to what was about to happen. Because something was about to happen. I knew it. Everybody in the street knew it. And Hamas knew it. Had probably been preparing for it.
Right after 1am on 8 July 2014, the IDF Spokesperson announced the start of Operation Protective Edge. It would be over quickly, I thought, just like the previous one. Over before it really started. And I would watch all the soldiers pouring from train and bus stations as they returned home from the front without setting foot in Gaza, without having to fight and without dying.
But I was wrong. Operation Protective Edge was different. It’s lasted 29 fierce, bloody days. It also turned into the costliest operation in nearly a decade. And the saddest. 64 soldiers died defending Israel. 11 of them on Israeli soil, as terrorists emerged shooting from the Gaza terror tunnels. 3 civilians were killed.
For three days a shaky cease fire allowed the smoke to clear a bit. And for both sides to take stock. In the 29 days of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas fired 3,360 rockets on Israel. From civilian homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and cemeteries. The IDF responded by striking 4,762 terror sites in the Gaza strip. But the numbers only gives you the clinical side of things.
A nation went to war. Everyday life ground to a halt. For some, never to resume again. It’s been intense, emotional, heart-breaking. And then I hear the questions in the media. Was all this really necessary? All the damage, the carnage, for what exactly? If the barrage of rockets from Gaza killed such a small number of Israelis, could Operation Protective Edge truly be about self-defence? About Israel’s right to exist?
Yes, it could. After 29 days of fighting, yes, more than ever. Because it’s not only about the rockets threatening of the lives of millions of Israelis. It’s about the tunnels too. Ah the tunnels…
Yes, Israel knew the tunnels existed, knew what Hamas used them for. But their true capacity for evil, the full horror of what Hamas planned to use them for became clear the moment the IDF stepped foot in those tunnels. It’s an evil that I struggle to wrap my head around. That sole purpose of destruction above life is something that our Western mindsets just aren’t used to. So we don’t expect it.
When we hear the word tunnel, we tend to think of something primitive, an escape route from jail that a prisoner digs using his spoon. The Gaza terror tunnels are somewhat different. Think more along the lines of an extensive labyrinth, a city almost, sporting all the modern day high-tech equipment, reinforced with concrete for safety. No need for any uncomfortable crouching. Some of these tunnels are big enough to store cars and other vehicles. It goes without saying that Hamas didn’t use gardening tools to dig these. They had sophisticated equipment. They knew what they wanted to accomplish. And they didn’t mind spending years doing it. Many of these tunnels lead right into Israel.
But the true evil wasn’t the tunnels themselves or their surprising extensiveness and sophistication. It is what lay hidden in those tunnels that turns your stomach. Over the years, Hamas managed to hoard an alarming stockpile of various weapons, anti-tank missiles and explosives. The normal stuff to expect from a terrorist organisation, I know. But then there’s also the massive stash of tranquillisers, syringes, IDF uniforms, handcuffs and ropes. And those aren’t the normal stuff to expect from a terrorist organisation. It’s the stuff you’d expect from someone planning an abduction. And judging from the amounts found, the abduction would be on a scale never seen before. Clearly Hamas had plans…
On 25 July 2014, Israel told the world about a terror attack that Hamas planned to launch on Israeli citizens in September this year. That is next month. Hundreds of Hamas terrorists would use the terror tunnels to suddenly pop up around the south of Israel wearing IDF uniforms. Their aim: abducting as many Israeli citizens and taking them back to Gaza.
Crazy plan? Not really…
I read a story last week about the interrogation of a captured Hamas terrorist. There were all the normal questions. And then came an interesting one. With all these sophisticated tunnels, some reaching as far as Beer Sheva, why not use them? His answer was chilling. I quote it for you.
“For twelve years we have been building these tunnels and waiting for the right moment, when we were trained and ready. We decided that the time would be this year on Rosh Hashanah, 2014. We chose Rosh Hashanah because most of the soldiers get leave to go home and there aren’t a lot on guard duty, and it’s a two day holiday. All of Hamas would go through the tunnels we’ve built over twelve years and capture Israel. In every tunnel we’d send two, three dozen armed terrorists and kidnap civilians, women, children and bring them back to Gaza through the tunnels. And then Israel couldn’t bomb the tunnels because of all the Israeli civilians inside them. And in this way we would occupy the entire country and rule Israel and kill all the Zionists. For years we were planning this and it was going to happen in two months.”
Operation Protective Edge trampled that plan to dust. Just in time? Yes, that is often how God works. Which makes the operation necessary, justified, essential. Israel said that Operation Protective Edge was launched “in order to stop the terror Israel’s citizens face on a daily basis.” I thought they meant the rockets. I think most of us did.
But Someone else knew better. He knew about the evil plans that would unfold. And He wasn’t having any of that. Because He promised to protect His inheritance, His treasured possession. And so, Shomer Yisrael, the Watchman of Israel, did what He’s been known to do since forever. He protected. In ways that we don’t often understand and makes no sense to us.
Am I saying that the whole operation was just to stop the plan? That it was the only objective? No. But the operation did most definitely do that. And for that I thank the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the One Who never slumbers or sleeps.
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