Tunnels, tramp card of resistance

Hamas has acknowledged responsibility for digging a 25-km mega tunnel discovered near the border between 'Israel' and Gaza.

Hamas said the tunnel was intended to free Palestinian captives held inside Israel, and capture Israeli security troops.

Abu Obaida, a spokesman for Hamas's military wing, said: "Al-Qassam Brigades dug the tunnel. The Brigades work in its full capacity over and under the ground and dig in the rocks."

"Kidnapping soldiers is the only way to succeed against the occupation," Abu Obaida told Hamas's al-Aqsa radio.

On October 18, the anniversary of the Schalit prisoner exchange, Hamas politburo deputy chief Moussa Abu Marzouk remarked on the Khan Yunis tunnel, tweeting that "we could not have achieved the release of a thousand captives without tunnels such as this to help abduct Gilad Schalit."

"The tunnel discovered by Israel cost us a lot of blood, money and effort," he added. "But all that is dwarfed by the possibility of securing the release of prisoners held in Israeli jails."

On its website, Hamas posted that "the resistance will continue until the enemy's arrogance, and their belief that they are invincible, ends. If the enemy thinks that it can tear the Palestinian resistance out by the roots with terror and crimes and siege, the people of the Hamas resistance will take courageous action to intimidate the enemy."

"They think that Hamas has given up the resistance, but that is not the case. The release of prisoners still tops our agenda and we will continue to implement every possible measure to empty the Israeli jails from Palestinian prisoners," the website said.