Israel’s recent discovery of a Hamas cross-border tunnel reveals Hamas’ resolve at using asymmetric tactics to fight the Jewish state. Jerusalem Post writes:

According to all IDF estimates, with the outburst of a fourth Gaza conflict, Hamas will attempt to use tunnels to gain control of an Israeli border community and to hold it – at least for a short time – and to try to take hostages. In any event, IDF estimates also clearly see that Hamas will make great efforts to bombard the border communities in an attempt to cause the residents to abandon their homes, which would constitute a great achievement for them.

These ‘terror tunnels’ were one of Hamas’ biggest weapons during the 2014 Israel-Gaza War, costing Israel a considerable amount of resources to thwart. February, 2016 estimates show that Israel has spent over $250 million countering this mode of attack (mostly in technology development and operational costs) since 2004.

Hamas not only shrugged off the significance of the tunnel discovery but went back on the offensive attempting to provoke fear in the hearts of Israelis, Hamas’ military wing, the Kassam Brigades, portentously stated,

The preparation for war continues in all arenas, and what the enemy uncovered today is but a drop in a sea of moves the resistance has prepared in order to protect its people, free its prisoners and liberate its land.

Despite, Israel’s success in uncovering 30 or so tunnels during Operation Protective Edge these tunnels seem to be an ongoing tactic for the terror group and Breitbart Jerusalem reports these tunnels are far from ordinary.

The underground tunnel infrastructure mirrors the network built by Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Iran-sponsored militia is known to have dug a vast underground tunnel complex replete with war rooms, internal communication lines, ventilation systems, and even missile silos.

Interestingly, the divulging of the tunnel discovery comes days after reports of Hamas’ ‘Elite Forces’ replacing civilian police along portions of the Gaza Strip. Seems like Hamas is preparing for another war with Israel, question is, when? We have already seen an effort by Hamas at Arab reconciliation even with Palestinian rival, Islamic Jihad, garnering support for a Jerusalem intifada. As violence has been increasing in Jerusalem in recent months one can see Hamas using the attacks not only as political fodder but as a way to divert attention from the Gaza Strip. Hamas may also be trying to improve their regional status as the ‘jihadist of choice’ against Israel in the Levant due to an enfeebled Hezbollah, in large part because of Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war.

Whatever the overall strategy Hamas knows one thing well, the use of ‘soft power’. That power manifests itself in various ways: using Muslim Brotherhood’s sympathetic organizations in the West (CAIR, AMJA) as surrogate spokesmen, performing charity work and community events to paint an amicable image, wooing member states of the UN to boost their political standing, etc. No matter how much Hamas tries to conceal its vile nature its plain to see from terror tunnels to suicide bombers to using Palestinians as human shields, Hamas is evil.