Hamas TV claim that tunnel runs from West Bank to Temple Mount debunked
"Due to the occupation, youth are forced to reach Al-Aksa to pray even if it means risking their lives," Palestinian journalist says of supposed tunnel.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: JULY 21, 2015 14:17Jerusalem's Old City and the Temple Mount(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Palestinians in the West Bank have been caught in the past on video using ropes and ladders to climb over the security barrier around Jerusalem to enter Israel. Now Hamas' Al Quds TV station claims that the organization has managed to dig Gaza-style tunnels from beyond the security barrier to Al-Aksa Mosque in the heart of the Old City.But according to Israel's Channel 10, the tunnel featured in the report is fake and was a Hamas propaganda stunt to raise Palestinian morale and to mock Israel.The Al-Quds video shows Palestinians trying to squeeze past a narrow space that is blocked by a large cement cube. The result of the effort of squirming through the underground area is shown at the end of the video which shows the Palestinian man praying at Al-Aksa. All of the branches of the Israeli security forces told Channel 10 that the cement cube seen in the video is a blocking obstacle placed in an underground water passage. Channel 10 noted that the journalist in the video does not herself attempt to bypass the supposed tunnel, though she does provide the reason for its construction. "Due to the occupation, youth are forced to reach Al-Aksa to pray even if it means risking their lives," she said."Smugglers built this tunnel to bring people into Jerusalem by way of this dark, smelly and scary place that is hewn through stone," she added. During last year's Operation Protective Edge, Israel tried to destroy Hamas' tunnel network from Gaza into Israel that was built to launch terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.