Top Hamas official declares group is not responsible for defending Gazan civilians
Moussa Abu Marzouk, a prominent member of Hamas’s political bureau, has declared that the terror group that rules Gaza is not responsible for protecting the Strip’s civilians, and said that the vast tunnel network underneath the enclave is only for the protection of Hamas terrorists.
In an interview with Russia Today’s Arabic channel on Friday, Abu Marzouk was asked why Hamas has dug 500 kilometers (310 miles) of tunnels in the territory it has ruled over since 2007, but has never built shelters for civilians to hide during bombings.
“We built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being killed in airstrikes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels,” the Qatar-based official said, according to a segment of the interview translated and shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
“Seventy-five percent of the population of Gaza are refugees, and it is the UN’s responsibility to protect them,” Abu Marzouk added, referencing the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) that operates across Gaza, the West Bank and other Middle East countries to provide basic services to Palestinian refugees from 1948 and their millions of descendants, who are also regarded by the agency as refugees despite never being displaced during their lifetime.
Abu Marzouk claimed that it was Israel’s obligation to provide for the needs of the citizens of Gaza under the Geneva Convention, referring to the international agreement for the protection of noncombatants during armed conflicts. Hamas has fired tens of thousands of rockets aimed at Israeli cities over the past 20 years, in contravention of the same convention.
