BEIRUT, November 1. /TASS/. The network of underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip was designed to protect members of the Palestinian movement Hamas from Israeli airstrikes and were not meant for civilians, a Hamas political bureau member said.

"We built the tunnels to protect ourselves from aircraft," he pointed out in an interview with RT in Arabic.

"Everybody knows that 75% of Gaza residents are refugees and the UN is responsible for protecting them. Under the Geneva Convention, the occupant (Israel) is responsible for providing them with basic necessities for as long as they remain under occupation," he said.

Senior Hamas member Abu Marzouk said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday that the Palestinian Authority and several Arab countries were secretly urging the West to eliminate Hamas. According to him, the movement had pinned great hopes on the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization and the authorities in the West Bank and, thus, were startled to learn of their position.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7 after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking people, including women, children and the elderly, hostage. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and launched ground operations in the enclave, also carrying out air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.