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At night, we can hear Hamas tunnelling

Letter from: Kibbutz Nir Am

February 19, 2016 07:10
The approach to Kibbutz Nir Am

ByShira Rubin, Shira Rubin

2 min read

On Kibbutz Nir Am, Liron Carmi sleeps with a commando knife under her bed.

"I went to sleep one night and suddenly heard the sound of massive drilling, something serious," the kibbutz native told Israel's Channel 10. She then played a thudding noise recorded on her smart-phone at around 2am one night last month. She feared that it was the sound of Hamas tunnelling beneath her feet.

Israeli communities near the Gaza border are on edge. Hamas is ramping up its psychological warfare with announcements that it is making progress in reconstructing its vast underground network, and many fear that a tunnel attack on Israel's communities near the border is imminent.

During the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, around 10 armed men emerged from a tunnel near Kibbutz Nir Am and fired an anti-tank shell at Israeli soldiers, killing four.