Hamas spends $100 million a year on military infrastructure

[Mosby]

As the residents of the Gaza Strip endure daily hardships due to the dire economic situation in the enclave, their Hamas leaders spend over $100 million a year on the group’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, according to estimates by both Israeli and Palestinian sources. Spending on digging tunnels accounts for some $40 million of that annual sum.

By way of comparison, the budget of the last Hamas government, which dissolved in April 2014, was $530 million. In other words, some 20 percent of the budget was funneled toward arming the group with advanced weapons, digging tunnels, training, and salaries for Hamas fighters.

Some 1,500 Hamas members from various brigades are currently employed in tunnel digging. The average salary for an excavator is $250-$400 a month — relatively high for the Strip, where unemployment is rampant. The diggers also receive bonuses and incentives for meeting deadlines set by the Hamas military leadership. Veteran diggers receive higher salaries than others.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-spends-100-million-a-year-on-military-infrastructure/

[6chars]

1. to be fair

not all of their tunnel diggers have been so well rewarded

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/At-least-160-children-died-digging-tunnels-for-Hamas-369138

Hamas used children to help them dig numerous tunnels into Israel and Egypt, a 2012 paper written for the Journal of Palestine Studies reported.

The paper, titled Gaza's Tunnel Phenomenon: The Unintended Dynamics of Israel's Siege says that little had been done to stop the phenomenon of child labor during the digging of the tunnels by Hamas in Gaza.

In December 2011, the paper's author Nicolas Pelham accompanied a police patrol in Gaza and reported that "nothing was done to impede the use of children in the tunnels, where, much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies."

He continued and said that "at least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas officials."

[FBaggins]

2. I wonder how much of it comes from Gaza "charities". n/t

[shira]

3. I don't see any compassion abusing Israel haters complaining about this $100M....

....that goes to terror rather than the poor and needy of Gaza.

It's because rather than supporting Palestinians - the haters actually support & defend Hamas. So they have no problem with this whatsoever.

[FBaggins]

4. Now now

If it weren't for those evil Israelis destroying those tunnels year after year... poor Hamas would be able to fund terror and throw some crumbs to the poor and needy of Gaza.

That is, of course, if keeping them poor and needy (while blaming Israel for same) wasn't essential to their strategy and maintaining their political power.