In a statement posted on the Internet on July 27, 2014, Hamas spokesman Mushir Al-Masri said: "The Zionist enemy has reached only a fraction" of the tunnels. "Even while the battle is being waged, the resistance is recuperating its military losses," said Al-Masri.
Following are excerpts:
Mushir Al-Masri: We are convinced that our people is on the brink of liberation. Today, Gaza constitutes a strategic threat to the Zionist existence on our Palestinian land.
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The Zionist enemy declared its ground war to destroy the tunnels, but we say that the thousands of mujahideen from the Al-Qassam Brigades, who dug these tunnels with their fingernails – and the Zionist enemy has reached only a fraction of these tunnels – will dig many more of these tunnels, Allah willing.
Let me reassure you, honorable free people, that even while the battle is being waged, the resistance is recuperating its military losses. The resistance has used only a limited part of its military capabilities.
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Let me reassure you that our Palestinian people – despite the price it has paid in blood, and despite the cost of the great destruction left by the Zionist terrorist destruction machine – faces two holidays: Eid Al-Fitr and the holiday of victory.
Let me reassure you, honorable brothers, that the resistance is ready for a long battle, and that it will reach the moment of victory, rejoicing in the great number of martyrs and rejoicing in victory, knowing that the blood of the martyrs was not shed in vain, but that it irrigated this great victory, Allah willing.
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