Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh announced that his Islamic group found an underground IDF vehicle equipped with sensors & cameras that monitored their tunnels.

By Elad Benari, Canada

Hamas claimed on Friday it has captured an Israeli vehicle for monitoring tunnels under the border with Gaza, AFP reports.

IDF surveillance robot – Photo: Meir Azulay

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, said that 10 days ago the group’s armed wing “discovered an underground vehicle on which were installed cameras and sensors to monitor tunnels and fighters.”

Speaking in a sermon at Muslim prayers in the Shati refugee camp where he lives, Haniyeh said the find gave the movement an “advantage.”

He added, however, that despite fresh tensions there was “no war against Gaza  looming on the horizon”.

“The occupation is embarking on defensive maneuvers and it is proof that (Israel) is not preparing for war,” claimed Haniyeh, according to AFP.

He said there had been “a lot of progress on the issue of the port of Gaza” in recent talks between Israel and Turkey on mending ties between the two governments.

Hamas’s terrorist tunnels have been in the headlines recently, as at least four tunnels have collapsed in recent weeks, killing Hamas terrorists and other Gazans.

Major General Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), was asked recently by the Ma’an news agency whether Israel had a hand in the collapse of the tunnels, a question which he evaded and only answered with, “God knows.”

In any case, Haniyeh’s comments about capturing an Israeli vehicle should probably be taken with a grain of salt. Recently, at a funeral for seven Hamas terrorists who died when the tunnel they were working in collapsed on top of them, the group proudly paraded what they claimed was a captured, rebuilt Israeli Merkava tank.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Arabic-language spokesman later pointed out, however, that the “tank” was clearly a fake.

As Ofer Gendelman noted, “Tanks aren’t made of wood and don’t run on wheels.”

View original Arutz Sheva publication at:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/208299#.VshTifJ966o