The current security discourse in Israel relating to the Palestinian arena focuses primarily on two issues: the offensive tunnels dug from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, which have returned to the headlines in recent weeks following the collapse and flooding of three tunnels within the Strip, and the wave of violence that erupted in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the autumn of 2015, with knife-based terrorism at its forefront. Against this background, questions arise regarding the role of social media among the other elements fueling the actions of young Palestinians and motivating them to take part in digging and stabbing activity.

Children of Tunnels

That Hamas resumed digging tunnels in the Gaza Strip following the end of Operation Protective Edge in August 2014 comes as no surprise. The destruction of the tunnels in the course of the operation and the action taken by the Egyptians to destroy the tunnels between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula have caused immense damage to Hamas’s military infrastructure and to the Strip’s main industrial and economic artery. Since the IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the “Gaza Underground” infrastructure has enabled the entry of weapons, raw materials, and food from the Sinai Peninsula. The disappearance of these resources as a result of Egyptian activity has had a detrimental impact on young industrialists, engineers, and contractors that were previously supported by this infrastructure. Unemployment of youth in the Gaza Strip currently stands above 50 percent, and the generation of parents is now the dominant sector in the workforce. With no alternative source of employment, adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 20 are employed by the Hamas military wing, which provides them with an income and a meaningful purpose by employing them to dig the offensive tunnels.

Social media constitutes an aggressive means of recruitment and branding in the service of Hamas, including viral campaigns (#rijal al-Anfaq – “men of the tunnels”). These campaigns include messages of national, religious, and heroic orientation on the digging of tunnels. However, the involvement of these young Palestinians in the digging of tunnels does not necessarily derive first and foremost from ideological reasons, but stems also, and perhaps primarily, from economic needs, boredom, and a search for ultimate meaning. Accordingly, membership in the “commando units” of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which coordinates the digging, has become the primary employment center for unemployed children and youth in Gaza.

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