The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas reportedly executed dozens of its tunnel diggers the past few weeks, suspecting or fearing they would reveal their locations to the Israeli military, Mako reports.
Mako, an Israeli website, reported this on its army blog, which had not been independently confirmed according to the Times of Israel:
The tunnelers, many of whom constructed the tunnels over the course of months, would dig for 8-12 hours a day, and received a monthly wage of $150-$300, according to the blog.
Sources in Gaza told the website that Hamas took a series of precautions to prevent information from reaching Israel. The terror organization would reportedly blindfold the excavators en route to the sites and back, to prevent them from recognizing the locations. The tunnels were strictly supervised by Hamas members, and civilians were kept far from the sites.
M., a former tunnel digger and Israeli collaborator, told the website that Hamas would strip search the workers to ensure they had no recording devices or cameras hidden on them.
The tunnels are another means by which Hamas has sought to terrorize the Jewish state, using them to kidnap and kill Israelis. Hamas states Israel's destruction to be one of its charter goals.