TORONTO – Rare footage captured Monday by India’s NDTV shows Hamas terrorists setting up a timed rocket in a densely populated civilian area of the Gaza Strip.
The video, recorded out of a window from a hotel across the street, shows three men working under a tent in an area surrounded by residential and commercial buildings.
The men appear to go in and out of the tent multiple times and can be seen running wires at one point.
“If Hamas does fire a rocket from here it will have immediate consequences for everyone around here,” the NDTV reporter says.
According to NDTV, the men worked for about an hour before dismantling the tent, covering up what they were working on with tree branches and mud, changing their clothes and leaving.
The footage was captured Monday morning at 6:30 a.m. local time.
On Tuesday morning at 7:50 a.m. local time, 10 minutes before a temporary 72-hour Israel-Hamas cease-fire went into effect, the news crew captured footage of a missile being launched from the exact location the men were working at.
For security reasons, the footage was only aired and posted online after the NDTV crew left Gaza.
Since July 8 the fighting between Israel and Hamas has reportedly claimed nearly 1,900 Palestinian lives. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
The UN and Gaza human rights groups monitoring the death toll have said more than 75 per cent of those killed in Gaza were civilians.
Israel has criticized Hamas terrorists in the past for launching missiles from residential areas and endangering civilians.
“Israel is taking great measures to avoid harming innocent civilians,” UN envoy Ron Prosor said on July 10, explaining the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) warns civilians in Gaza of “imminent strikes.”
“Hamas is exploiting our concern for human life by hiding in Palestinian homes, schools and mosques, and using the basement of the hospital in Gaza as its headquarters,” he said.
-With files from The Associated Press
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