There's an Al Jazeera expose at the bottom of the post, outlining the massive indigenous weapons industry that Hamas is running in the middle of the "world's largest concentration camp" (because that's exactly how Auschwitz was - lots of spare missiles and raw materials just lying around!) They're back to mass weapons production, which as a sheer matter of statistics means a bump in "work accidents." And in the Sinai the Egyptians are literally tripping over huge weapons caches.
And - ust as they were doing on the eve of Cast Lead - Hamas is back to strutting around about taking on the IDF:
One year after Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip, the spokesman for Hamas' armed wing said this week that the Islamist group would not shirk away from a new battle with Israel... Israel has said the brigades, which some observers estimate have 25,000 fighters, have been seeking with Syrian and Iranian help to upgrade their rocket capabilities and put the Israeli heartland and the commercial capital of Tel Aviv within range. Abu Ubaida said Hamas had no choice but to improve its arsenal.
Rocket barrages are again routine, having escalated from the merely sporadic attacks that Hamas launched at the end of 2009 in violation of the ceasefire. Why not? They fired on Israeli civilians 29 out of 35 consecutive days, and the Obama administration responded by demanding Israeli security concessions. Plus - if nothing else - they've got all of these rockets and missiles just piling up in the living room. They've got to do something with them:
If only Israel would lift the siege on Gaza! The way things are right now, Hamas is limited to using their VIP tunnels - electricity and telephones included - to smuggle food, missile materials, and anything else they want up to and including cars. The sheer scope of the humanitarian crisis is well-nigh overwhelming.
References and related after the jump...
References:
* Hamas: Gaza bombmaker killed in work-related blast [Ha'aretz]
* Egypt finds massive weapons cache in Sinai [JPost via JihadWatch]
* Hamas Leaders Spent Last Month Bragging About War, Mocking Israeli Restraint [MR]
* Year after Gaza war, Hamas says ready to fight Israel again [Ha'aretz]
* Israel hits Gaza for second time in 24 hours after mortar barrage [Ha'aretz]
* Gaza militants fire 3 Qassam rockets into southern Israel [Ha'aretz]
* Gaza rocket hits Israel, despite Hamas moratorium on Qassams [Ha'aretz]
* Gaza attacked Israeli civilians 29 out of the past 35 days [Elder]
* Hamas weapons industry in Gaza [operhok / YouTube]
* 'VIP tunnel' smuggling wealthy Gazans into Egypt [Ha'aretz]
* Egypt destroys tunnel used for smuggling cars into Gaza [Ha'aretz]
* Palestinians
* Israel
* Israeli-Arab Peace Proces
