Gaza weapons smuggling flourishes

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - In houses along the steel wall separating Gaza and Egypt, the lights are flickering — a sign that smugglers are digging tunnels below, their powerful drills weakening the flow of electricity.

Tunneling is the fastest-growing business in this impoverished border town, and one of the biggest obstacles to any lasting Israeli-Palestinian truce.

Since Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip a year ago, the number of tunnels for smuggling weapons, drugs and other contraband has more than doubled, evolving into an underground maze clawed out of Gaza's soft soil.

The largely unhindered weapons influx also heightens the threat of civil war between the rival Hamas and Fatah movements in Gaza and is souring Israel's ties with neighboring Egypt.

Israel says anti-tank missiles, tons of explosives and thousands of rifles have reached Gaza in the past year. Palestinian militants say they have already imported longer-range Katyusha rockets — they fired one earlier this year — plus the means to upgrade their homemade rockets to reach deeper into Israel.

A Palestinian security official says cordite, a highly explosive propellant for anti-aircraft weapons, has come through the tunnels, in one case blowing up on the buyer and killing two people in October.

The Palestinians have done nothing, despite a promise by President Mahmoud Abbas to shut down the weapons pipeline as part of a Gaza cease-fire reached last month, said Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin. The smuggling, Eisin added, could easily bring down the truce.

"We don't build a cease-fire on luck," she said.

Palestinian analyst Ghassan Khatib said the arms buildup has fueled anarchy in the coastal strip. He noted that expired medicines and illegal drugs are also flooding Gaza.

After Israel's pullout, Egyptian and Palestinian security forces were to have deployed to stop the smuggling, but enforcement has been spotty.

Israel wants Egypt to do more. Egypt says it's trying, but needs more equipment and personnel.

Palestinian security is also reluctant to move against the powerful clans and militant groups that operate the tunnels. Many of its members have ties to these groups.

The tunneling under Rafah, a town split between Gaza and Egypt, dates back more than 20 years. Initially the purpose was commercial smuggling, but weapons traffic increased after the second Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000.

Israel responded by bulldozing row after row of border-side houses — some 1,500 in Rafah between 2000 and 2004, leaving some 15,000 residents homeless, according to Israeli human rights groups.

When Israel withdrew, some 90 tunnels were operating. Now, there are at least 150, but the number is probably closer to 250, said one tunnel digger.

The digger, a tunnel operator and a former operator — all insisting on anonymity because they said they fear repercussions despite relatively lax law enforcement — described the tunneling.

Most tunnels are run by business people who bring in cigarettes and other cheap Egyptian goods as well as rifles and ammunition. Militant groups control the others. The tunnels are concentrated along the middle five miles of the eight-mile border where the earth is firmer and Israeli territory is farther away.

The average tunnel runs for about 2,500 feet, is less than three feet in diameter and up to 80 feet deep. It takes as little as a month to dig.

Crawling through the narrow passages, young men pull the goods in crates, communicating by walkie-talkie or cell phone.

Salem, 32, his back hunched from years of burrowing underground, said digging a tunnel cost about $100,000 during Israeli rule, when diggers had to be vetted carefully to weed out possible informers for Israel and could command salaries of about $3,000 a month, a fortune by Gaza standards.

With the tunnel business out in the open now, workers are plentiful, digging in exchange for meals and a promise of a small share of the profit. Tunnels can be less deep. The result: Their average cost has fallen to about $20,000, easily repaid by the $25,000 earned on a shipment of 100 rifles.

About a dozen people were arrested in the past year on charges related to tunnel digging, but all have been released, said Yousef Abu Siam, an officer in the Preventive Security Service.

On his office computer he presents a slideshow of entrances to tunnels, eight of them closed in the past year by a series of cement blocks.

Israel raided Gaza after Hamas-allied militants tunneled into Israel in June, killed two soldiers and captured one. The military said it uncovered about 30 tunnels during the raid.

Uri Dromi, a former Israeli government spokesman, said the smuggling is fueling Israeli fears that the militants are using the cease-fire to continue arming.

"On the surface, there is a cease-fire," he said, "but underground they keep building tunnels."

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[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

quite simply, it's not news

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

quite simply, it's not news

rubbishing the topic already?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Simply following your example.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

Simply following your example.

uh huh. i had a reason for putting that in your thread. in your case now, it's just you being childish. carry on.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Simply following your example.

uh huh. i had a reason for putting that in your thread. in your case now, it's just you being childish. carry on.

Childish... that's interesting because that's the exact same thing I was thinking.

I wonder if I'm the only person who has noticed that you don't receiving what you give out. If you stop then I'll oblige you and do the same.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

Simply following your example.

uh huh. i had a reason for putting that in your thread. in your case now, it's just you being childish. carry on.

Childish... that's interesting because that's the exact same thing I was thinking.

I wonder if I'm the only person who has noticed that you don't receiving what you give out. If you stop then I'll oblige you and do the same.

once again, it's all about you. now ####### off and go hijack your own threads

Edited December 18, 2006 by charlesandnessa

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Simply following your example.

uh huh. i had a reason for putting that in your thread. in your case now, it's just you being childish. carry on.

Childish... that's interesting because that's the exact same thing I was thinking.

I wonder if I'm the only person who has noticed that you don't receiving what you give out. If you stop then I'll oblige you and do the same.

go hijack your own threads and ####### off

As you wish