Archival: Report on Hamas Tunnel-Digging Unit

This Al-Jazeera TV report, posted on the Internet on November 16, 2013, shows how members of the tunnel-digging unit of Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades dig the tunnels and how rockets are launched from the tunnel openings.

Following are excerpts:

Voice of reporter: These are the resistance fighters deployed on the Gaza border. They are constantly on guard, preparing for any Israeli incursion. These preparations, however, do not take place only above ground. Underground, there is deployment of another kind, out of sight. We are with the tunnel-digging unit of Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. A young member of the unit leads us through this secret tunnel, somewhere in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Qassam tunnel-digging unit member: Our entire life is underground. We spend weeks underground. We dig and invest all our energy in order to accomplish the plan of Jihad, the plan to liberate our prisoners and our lands.

Al-Qassam tunnel unit member prays inside the tunnel

Voice of reporter: The tunnel is very deep and very long.

The wall of the tunnel is marked "400"

Tunnel-digging unit members dig with a drill and shovels

The unit members race against time to complete the digging of this tunnel. They have meager means, and the risks are high.

Al-Qassam tunnel-digging unit member: Many of our fellow mujahideen who did this work were martyred. We suffer a lot and face great difficulties, but, Allah willing, we will continue. We won't be deterred by the Israeli enemy bombings or by collapses in the tunnel.

Reporter: These tunnels are especially important because they enable the men of the resistance in Gaza to carry out their operations and attacks, out of the reach of the Israeli airforce. This was the most significant weapon in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, for example, as well as in the shelling of Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities by the resistance, during last [year's 2012[ war on Gaza.

Footage of Al-Qassam members carrying rockets through a tunnel and loading a subterranean rocket launcher

These images demonstrate the role of the tunnels in the response of the resistance in the eight-day war in November 2012.

Footage of rockets being launched from within tunnel openings

Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubeida: The tunnels are only some of the means available to the resistance. The Al-Qassam Brigades can make their own choices, and can shift from defense to attack in any conflict.

Al-Qassam Brigades members share a meal in the tunnel while singing a song

Voice of reporter: These images portray Gaza and its resistance, which breaks through every possible path in defiance of its condition and of the siege.

This is Tamer Al-Mishal, reporting for Al-Jazeera from Gaza, Palestine.