10 Years of Hamas Rule Nothing to Celebrate

TUNNEL VISION Hamas has spent $120 million since the end of Operation Protective Edge in 2014 constructing tunnels designed for attacking Israel and for smuggling. It also spends $100 million a month on salaries to Hamas officials. The World Bank reports unemployment in Gaza has reached 27% among males 58% among youths and that 80% of Gaza residents receive some form of aid.

F or Yom Tov Samia the early morning hours of May 4 1994 still arouse vivid memories. Samia then brigadier general and head of the IDF command in the Gaza Strip was in Cairo as part of the Israeli team negotiating the first phase of the Oslo accords which granted self-rule to Palestinians in Gaza and Jericho. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat were scheduled to sign the deal later that morning in the Egyptian capital.

Arafat was still objecting to signing on two specific paragraphs. The first included the maps of the new borders.

“He knew that under international law once you sign maps you are agreeing that these are the lines and there’s no room to play ” Samia said.