Eight British parliamentarians, that are touring Israel as part of a trip organized by Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), said they were “shocked by the sophistication” of tunnels dug by terrorists in the Gaza Strip extending into Israeli territory, The Times of Israel reported Thursday.
The officials saw firsthand the network of underground routes near Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha. During their visit, delegates received a strategic briefing from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inside the tunnel, which leads into an agricultural field in an Israeli kibbutz. In the last three months, the IDF has found and destroyed three tunnels from Gaza, constructed by Hamas terrorists in order to carry out terror incursions into Israel.
“We were shocked by the sophisticated tunnel we saw leading into Israel,” said CFI chair Stephen Crabb. “The fact that Hamas terrorists were just metres from an Israeli community is deeply worrying, and exemplifies the threats Israel faces on a daily basis,” he added.
“We in the UK can learn a great deal from Israel in the fight against terrorism, and we must do more to prevent international aid from being misappropriated in Gaza for these despicable activities.”
Scottish Tory MP Paul Masterton on Wednesday viewed a United Hatzalah ambucycle dedicated in memory of Yoni Jesner. The 19-year-old was killed in a suicide bombing on a bus in Israel on 19th September 2002. After sustaining a critical head injury in the attack, Yoni was taken off life support and his organs were donated to three people, including a 7-year-old Palestinian girl.
Jesner lived in Masterton’s constituency and the $36,000 ambucycle, sponsored by his friends, family and community members, comes equipped with medical supplies, with the intent to provide volunteer paramedics with the means to perform emergency medical treatment in Jerusalem.
“Seeing the ambucycle dedicated in my constituent Yoni Jesner’s memory was inspiring,” said Masterton. “Yoni’s dream to study medicine in order to save lives has truly been fulfilled by the life-saving work medic carried out every day,” the parliamentarian said.
The group, which includes Andrew Bowie MP, Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, Bernard Jenkin MP, Paul Masterton MP, Damien Moore MP and CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE, also visited the Israeli town of Sderot, a regular target of rockets fired from Gaza, and were briefed by IDF officials at the Erez Crossing on the Gaza border.
[Photo: Conservative Friends of Israel / Facebook ]