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Recently, with the situation in Gaza worsening again and many buildings being destroyed, the lack of construction material to aid in rebuilding has been brought up again.

The IDF claims, on their official site (published 2018, according to the page source):

In addition, lack of necessary resources continues to have a detrimental effect on the population. Although a large amount of building materials enters Gaza from Israel (more than 3.5 million tons of construction material in 2016 alone), a significant portion does not reach construction companies, and is instead diverted to Hamas' [sic] tunnel building activities.

A Google search doesn't really turn up any results on this past 2015, though, and the IDF isn't exactly an impartial source here.

Are there other sources that corroborate this claim? Is Hamas exacerbating the scarcity of construction materials in Gaza by seizing materials?

Mithical
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    What is an IDF? – Weather Vane May 16 '21 at 15:49
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    @WearherVane Israeli Defence Force. – GGMG-he-him May 16 '21 at 19:12
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    Since Hamas is not open about that, and you don't trust Israel so your only semi credible source would be people opposing Hamas writing in Arabic. As Hamas is a terror organization, not believing in human rights, those kind of people would last long unfortunately. There are Muslim religious leader accusing Hamas of using resources not belonging to them, but again they are not super credible as they have political and religious agenda behind their claims – Rsf May 17 '21 at 08:14
  • War and other war-like conflicts tend to create scarcity of certain materials for the "war effort". Personally, I don't find it at all surprising that construction materials and other things would be seized by any organized militants. Not even close in scale, but as a readily notable example, numerous items were extremely scarce and even rationed during World War II. –  May 17 '21 at 15:29
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    The arithmetic seems suspect; 3.5M tonnes of building materials would be enough to build 10 Empire State Buildings. If these materials have an average density of 3 then 3.5M tonnes would be a solid cube 105 meters on a side (I'm glossing over the details of cement hydration here). Of course the IDF aren't saying how much they consider "significant". 10%? 50%? – Paul Johnson May 18 '21 at 20:11
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_tunnel_warfare_in_the_Gaza_Strip relevant – bondonk May 19 '21 at 09:16
  • Hamas tunnel-building activities are much more than terrorism, though. While they use them to smuggle weapons and explosives, or to infiltrate into israeli territory, they also serve to smuggle many other things the population of Gaza needs desperately without being at mercy of israeli checkpoints. About half of the economy of Gaza was found depending on those tunnels. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/140721-gaza-strip-tunnels-israel-hamas-palestinians – Rekesoft Jun 03 '21 at 13:14
  • @fredsbend Are you defining the period of conflict as since 2007 when Hamas violently overthrew the PA and took control of Gaza? – Zev Spitz Jun 06 '21 at 18:01
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    @Rekesoft Note that the article suggests an additional reason why Hamas would prefer to use the tunnels rather than rely on Israeli checkpoints: "...Hamas taxes everything that comes through them, shutting down operators who don't pay up. Tunnel revenue is estimated to provide Hamas with as much as $750 million a year." – Zev Spitz Jun 06 '21 at 18:16
  • @ZevSpitz Interesting fact. One may wonder though, why an operator would choose to pay a cut to Hamas rather than having their goods through Israel, if that option is available. Big "if" there. – Rekesoft Jun 07 '21 at 07:13
  • @Rekesoft I would suggest that Hamas -- a terror organization, without any accountability to the people of Gaza -- has plenty of "forceful marketing" tools at their disposal, to ensure the operators don't deny Hamas their cut. AFAICT it's not really a free market. – Zev Spitz Jun 07 '21 at 07:26
  • @ZevSpitz Yes, but I half-remember reading an interview to a gazatian entrepreneur who was explaining that due to israeli restrictions he had no choice but to rely on Hamas-controlled smuggling. And I don't remember exactly which was his trade - cardboard boxes, or something like that - but I do remember not being able to think a reason why the goods he needed could be subjected to any kind of import restrictions. Under the umbrella of security, Israel deliberately keeps Gaza's economy strangled. – Rekesoft Jun 07 '21 at 07:43

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