Arms Are Still Arriving Through Undamaged Tunnels

The Times ^ | January 22, 2009 | Sheera Frenkel and Jack Shenker in Rafa

[Fennie]

The three-week Israeli offensive has failed to disrupt the flow of weapons through the tunnels that crisscross the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, smugglers told The Times yesterday.

"We have continued to move goods. Most of our tunnels are still intact," said Khaled, a smuggler on the Egyptian side of the border.

Standing just outside the Rafah crossing, Khaled gestured towards the vast fields just outside the "no man's land" - a demarcated zone between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. He estimated that there were nearly a thousand tunnels hidden in the dusty hills, more than half of them used to import oil and gas and the rest for goods.

A handful, described as VIP tunnels, are big enough to walk through.

"It costs $200,000 to build some of those. There is a lot of money here," he said. Weapons and goods have been smuggled through the Egyptian border for years, but the tunnel-building industry really took off when Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007 and Israel imposed a blockade on the coastal strip.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Warm up the D-9s...

[SJackson]

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[Old Retired Army Guy]

A lot of anti-personnel mines in those “vast fields” might inhibit some of the traffic.

[GonzoGOP]

A lot of anti-personnel mines in those “vast fields” might inhibit some of the traffic

Won't do much against a tunnel. Of course some mustard gas, being that it is heavier than air and naturally finds its way into tunnels, would do a great deal of good.

Heck just bring in some of the big dredges like the ones from the Suez or Panama canal and extend the Mediterranean up to the border of Israel. Stack all the dirt up on the Gaza side to prevent them from building bridges. The new Gaza moat and berm.

[gandalftb]

A closer estimate is about 200 tunnels that actually cross the border. Most have multiple entrances on the Gaza side and a single entrance on the Egyptian side. Most of the Gaza entrances are sealed, to be opened, upon the compromise of an entrance that is open. That way goods in shipment can be retrieved and freight continues undisturbed.

The tunnels are owned by Palestinian families, like mini-mafias, where all the members are related somehow. That allows for secrecy. Goods are dropped off to a "family" member, freight charges are collected and the goods are smuggled in. These are old, multi-generation family smuggling businesses.

Hamas collects a tariff on the delivery end, Egyptians on the supply end.

Israel collapsed about 50 of the 200 actual crossings. Most would be operational again by now. Israel will never stop the tunnel traffic with out an ownership/occupation of the Gaza-Egyptian border at least a mile deep all along the border.

Israel can't even stop drug smuggling through the Sinai on its own border.

Until there is a workable peace, arms smuggling will always continue.

[SisterK]

Yours is the best solution so far. Or better yet, make Gaza a nasty little mean pathetic island..No killing of "innocents", just a little geographical cure.

Heck just bring in some of the big dredges like the ones from the Suez or Panama canal and extend the Mediterranean up to the border of Israel. Stack all the dirt up on the Gaza side to prevent them from building bridges. The new Gaza moat and berm