Rockets created with water tubes are primitive but effective. The video circulating on social networks showing Hamas group militants producing these missiles dates back to 2021 and became a sensation by going viral again after the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. The posts said, “#Hamas terrorists and war criminals published a video featuring rockets made of water pipes.” According to the analysis of the British newspaper Telegram These pipes, which were removed in order to create a military arsenal suitable for striking Israel, will become part of the water system financed with European Union money. The British newspaper reconstructed that, between the joint financing of the European Union and its Member States over the last decade, over 100 million euros in financing would be obtained for the water system in the Gaza Strip, which is politically and militarily controlled by Hamas.
In the footage, you see militants with their heads wrapped in bandanas digging deep to remove very long pipes from the water system. The video then shows the process of cutting the tubes and turning them into Qassam-like rockets filled with a mixture of sugar and potassium nitrate fertilizers, improvised rocket fuel and commercially available explosives. He was eventually sent to areas administered by Israel. The images give an idea of how hard Hamas militants worked and spent months preparing the attack on Israel. The purpose of this attack is not simply to claim victims among civilians and soldiers on Israeli territory.
Donor purity
On Saturday, September 7, Hamas said it fired at least 5,000 rockets before crossing the border and launching a ground offensive. According to the Telegraph’s hypotheses, which cannot be independently verified, it is possible that construction materials donated by Western countries to the Palestinian people were used in the production of the ammunition. “Whoever runs EU diplomacy is naive,” said Frank Furred, director general of one of the Brussels think tanks that collaborated on the Telegraph’s research. “Palestinian organizations should be given cautious security assessments before giving taxpayer money for infrastructure that Hamas terrorists can use for military purposes,” Furred said. said.
Debate over EU funds
The revelation of how Hamas decided to use pipes and possibly construction materials from the water system comes amid international debate over future aid to Gaza. The widespread fear is that humanitarian donations may fall into the hands of a terrorist group, rather than helping the Palestinian people, who have suffered tremendously for years due to Israel’s rationing of basic needs. In Brussels, EU Foreign Ministers agreed to provide aid worth 295 million euros a year to Palestine, overturning a proposal by the European Commission, which initially announced that financial aid to the Palestinians was suspended due to Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel. EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell announced at the end of the meeting that the funds will continue, so that an additional 218 million euros will be distributed to the Palestinians by the end of the year.
Financing social and health expenditures
As Today.it recently analyzed, from 2014 to today the EU has allocated almost 1.5 billion euros to Palestine. The vast majority of the funds (about $1.3 billion) went to the Palestinian National Authority (PA), which controls the West Bank and competes with Hamas. The fund effectively increased social and health spending in Palestine. For example, in 2022, 55 million will be provided to PNA to pay the salaries and pensions of its administrative staff. The other 40 million went to public welfare payments, while 20 million were used for vaccines against Covid-19. In recent years, other resources have been used to help hospitals and schools and, in less frequent cases, local businesses.
Funds for Gaza
Of the remaining 200 million euros that the EU has allocated to Palestine since 2014, just over 10 million belongs to Gaza-based organizations. These are NGOs mainly concerned with human rights and support to the population, especially children and women. Many of these are independently recognized internationally, such as the Palestinian Bar Association (an organization of lawyers that provides legal assistance to citizens and received an allowance of around 1 million euros in 2019) or the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which is a beneficiary. Approximately 700 thousand euros for three projects since 2018.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
