US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, along with Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, touring a terror tunnel on June 8, 2017. Photo: Matty Stern / US Embassy Tel Aviv / Flash90.

JNS.org – US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley received a security briefing on Thursday from Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon and IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi during a helicopter flight from Jerusalem to Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.

Aboard the helicopter, Danon detailed security challenges posed by Gaza’s ruling terror group, Hamas.

“Hamas pours its resources into arms and digging murderous terror tunnels instead of investing in a better future for the residents of Gaza,” Danon said. “They educate their youth to hate Israel instead of providing them with the opportunity to grow and flourish.”

Haley also toured Israel’s Keren Shalom border crossing with Gaza, surveyed a terror tunnel dug by Hamas near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha and met residents of Kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza. Kibbutz residents told Haley that despite the constant threat of rocket attacks emanating from Gaza, they could not see themselves living anywhere else.

“We finally feel we have someone protecting us at the UN,” said Diana Ben David, a teacher at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the Times of Israel reported.

Haley’s security briefing and tour of the Gaza border followed her visit Wednesday to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

“My heart is full, and my life will change after the visit,” she wrote in the Western Wall visitors’ book. “It was a blessing to experience a holy place with spiritual people full of love. May God bless whoever comes to the Western Wall.”