Bloomberg
January 24, 2010, 07:01 PM EST
By Daniel Williams
Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Three construction drills that look like giant corkscrews pierce the ground close to Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip, part of an effort to disrupt smuggling tunnels that has led to shootouts.
Smugglers and sympathizers of Hamas, the Islamic movement that rules Gaza, say pipes inserted into the holes will house motion sensors to detect underground traffic. Residents of the Egyptian border town of Rafah say the Egyptians are also constructing a subterranean wall made of steel panels to block tunnels at a depth of 18 meters.
The moves reflect a new determination by Egypt to control smuggling into the coastal enclave, which Hamas has ruled since 2007. Israel and the U.S. regard Hamas as a terrorist organization and have pressured Egypt to block the contraband, which includes rockets that have been fired at Israel. Though Egypt supports Palestinian independence, it opposes Hamas, which wants to create an Islamic state.
“This is a sensitive problem,” said Diaa Rashwan, an analyst at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “Egypt looks like it is doing Israel’s bidding and the Egyptian people don’t like that.”
The construction has set off violence along the 14- kilometer border. On Jan. 6, an Egyptian border guard was killed by a Palestinian sniper a day after a clash between participants of a private aid convoy and Egyptian police over delivery of goods to Gaza. On Dec. 18, shots fired from the Palestinian side hit construction equipment, Rafah police officials said.
Criticism
Opposition parties at home and detractors in other Arab countries have criticized Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for sealing his border with Gaza since the 2007 Hamas takeover. Israel has also shut its frontier with Gaza.
The blockade has crippled the economy in the coastal enclave, where 80 percent of the factories and shops are closed, according to Hamas officials. Palestinians rely on smuggled goods brought in through the tunnels for everything from cement to cigarettes to meat.
Egyptian Cabinet spokesman Magdi Radi declined to answer questions yesterday about the construction. He referred instead to remarks made by Mubarak to a police gathering.
“Egypt does not allow chaos on its borders,” Mubarak said yesterday in a speech broadcast on state-run Nile TV, according to the BBC monitoring service. “The engineering works and fortifications on our eastern borders are an act of Egypt’s sovereignty, about which we do not accept any arguments or interference from anyone, whoever he is,” he said, referring to the region that abuts Gaza.
He also warned against “targeting” of soldiers and facilities at the frontier.
‘Death Wall’
Hamas has rejected “the death steel wall that Egypt is constructing under the borders of the Gaza Strip, and calls on Egypt to stop building it because it suffocates the Gaza Strip,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The Israeli army invaded Gaza in December, 2008, in a move it said was aimed at stopping Hamas rocket fire at its southern towns and cities, and has frequently bombed the frontier to destroy the tunnels.
The Israeli army has said that more than 10,000 projectiles were fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001 and that 21 civilians and four soldiers have been killed by the rocket and mortar fire. The Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza said that 1,450 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s invasion while Israel puts the number at 1,166.
In 2007, the U.S. government earmarked $23 million for “sensors, surveillance cameras, remote controlled robotic devices, seismic-acoustic tunnel detection equipment and the computers to process seismic data,” the Congressional Research Service wrote in a September 2009 report. The CRS is a research branch of the U.S. Congress.
U.S. Threat
Last January, Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was “providing technical expertise.”
The U.S. Congress had threatened to reduce monetary assistance to Egypt because of alleged lax border control. The U.S. provides about $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt each year. Egypt stations 750 border guards along the frontier. Phone and e-mail requests to the U.S. Defense Department in Washington requesting information on American involvement were unanswered.
An Egyptian smuggler and Hamas supporter in Rafah, who would only identify himself as Islam out of fear of being arrested, said holes are being dug at intervals of about 50 meters and surveillance equipment is being lowered into the ground through the pipes.
“This is an escalation in technology,” said Islam. “Hamas will look for its own technology to defeat it.”
Egyptian police at Rafah declined to comment on the construction.
Sardines
Residents of the area just south of Rafah said Egyptian police have been cracking down on smugglers who sometimes earn 50 percent of proceeds from goods tunneled into Gaza.
“We can tell by the price of sardines,” said Ashraf, a smuggler who didn’t want to give his full name. “When smuggling is going well, there are almost no sardines in stores and if you can find them they cost 60 pounds ($11) instead of the usual six. There are plenty of sardines around now, so you know smugglers are having a hard time.”
--Editors: Louis Meixler, Peter Hirschberg.
To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Williams in Rafah at +2-010-330-2417 or dwilliams41@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at +972-2-640-1104 or phirschberg@bloomberg.net
Showing posts with label tunnels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tunnels. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, December 20, 2009
EGYPT: Government under fire for new Gaza barrier
December 20, 2009 | 8:52 am
December 20, 2009 | 8:52 am
An underground barrier to prevent tunneling by smugglers along Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip has been dubbed a "wall of shame" by Arab writers and politicians across the region who criticize Cairo for siding with Israel in isolating the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the seaside enclave.
Construction on the 30-meter-deep wall began a few weeks ago, but the Egyptian government -- which opposes Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza -- didn't acknowledge the controversial project publicly until over the weekend. The wall is regarded my many Egyptians as an affront against Palestinians.
"Whether it is a wall, sensors or tapping devices ... what matters is that Egyptian territory must be protected. Whoever says Egypt is imposing its control on the border, we tell them this is Egypt's full right," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying by Al Ahram Al Arabi weekly magazine.
The foreign minister's statements prompted Arab nationalist politicians and writers to accuse the government of President Hosni Mubarak of serving Israel's and the United States' interests at the expense of fellow Arab Palestinians. The matter highlights Egypt's close geographical and emotional ties to the Palestinians but also the complex political dilemma it faces in attempting to undercut Hamas.
"It is a wall of shame being built by Egypt on the borders with Gaza," wrote Ibrahim Eissa, chief editor of daily newspaper Al Destour. "It is like a total obedience to the American recommendations. We are opening our territories for a barrier that only serves and supports the Israeli and U.S. policies."
Eissa wrote that, regardless of his and many Egyptians' political perspective, building the wall was an example of the Egyptian regime's dictatorship.
"Unlike in Israel, where constructing a wall separating its territories from Gaza and the West Bank was debated in parliament and in the media before it was given the thumbs up, our regime was keen on classifying any information regarding the new wall," he wrote. "This is simply because Israel adopts a democratic system while Egypt doesn't enjoy such luxury."
Similar reactions echoed across the region.
"We can understand it when the Israeli government uses the same methods as the Nazis in transforming the Gaza Strip into a huge concentration camp," wrote London-based pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi."But what we cannot understand or accept is that the Egyptian government – and not the Egyptian people – should take part in such a crime for fear of the Israelis, and in an attempt to appease the U.S., getting nothing in return except humiliation and dishonor."
Palestinian journalist Mustafa Sawwaf wrote on a Hamas-affiliated website: "The issue has nothing to do with Egyptian national security, and more to do with Egyptian policy. As far as the borders with the Gaza Strip and the steel wall are concerned, this policy is linked less to Egypt's interests and security as it has become a tool for implementing U.S. schemes in the region."
The wall, dubbed "the steel barrier" by Egyptian media, prompted a number of MPs to file reports to the attorney general against the country's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, as well as official inquiries to the parliament on the issue.
"It is pitiful that Egypt, who previously demolished Israel's Barleev wall during the Egyptian-Israeli war (1967-1973), is now bringing up this barricade." said Muslim Brotherhood MP Hamdy Hassan. "Our government is alleging that it is for the country's own security while it is just another effort to stiffen the ongoing siege over our fellow Muslims in Gaza."
Egypt has tightened its border with Gaza since Hamas gained control of the coastal strip in 2007. But the smuggling tunnels -- transporting a range of goods, weapons as well as baby food -- were considered a lifeline by Palestinians who faced shortages due to Israel's siege of the territory. Cairo wants to weaken Hamas but at the same time does not want to appear to be unsympathetic to Palestinians or too cozy with America and Israel.
-- Amro Hassan and Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
Photo: Construction on the Egyptian side of the borders with Gaza. Credit: Eyad Baba / Associated Press
December 20, 2009 | 8:52 am
An underground barrier to prevent tunneling by smugglers along Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip has been dubbed a "wall of shame" by Arab writers and politicians across the region who criticize Cairo for siding with Israel in isolating the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the seaside enclave.
Construction on the 30-meter-deep wall began a few weeks ago, but the Egyptian government -- which opposes Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza -- didn't acknowledge the controversial project publicly until over the weekend. The wall is regarded my many Egyptians as an affront against Palestinians.
"Whether it is a wall, sensors or tapping devices ... what matters is that Egyptian territory must be protected. Whoever says Egypt is imposing its control on the border, we tell them this is Egypt's full right," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying by Al Ahram Al Arabi weekly magazine.
The foreign minister's statements prompted Arab nationalist politicians and writers to accuse the government of President Hosni Mubarak of serving Israel's and the United States' interests at the expense of fellow Arab Palestinians. The matter highlights Egypt's close geographical and emotional ties to the Palestinians but also the complex political dilemma it faces in attempting to undercut Hamas.
"It is a wall of shame being built by Egypt on the borders with Gaza," wrote Ibrahim Eissa, chief editor of daily newspaper Al Destour. "It is like a total obedience to the American recommendations. We are opening our territories for a barrier that only serves and supports the Israeli and U.S. policies."
Eissa wrote that, regardless of his and many Egyptians' political perspective, building the wall was an example of the Egyptian regime's dictatorship.
"Unlike in Israel, where constructing a wall separating its territories from Gaza and the West Bank was debated in parliament and in the media before it was given the thumbs up, our regime was keen on classifying any information regarding the new wall," he wrote. "This is simply because Israel adopts a democratic system while Egypt doesn't enjoy such luxury."
Similar reactions echoed across the region.
"We can understand it when the Israeli government uses the same methods as the Nazis in transforming the Gaza Strip into a huge concentration camp," wrote London-based pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi."But what we cannot understand or accept is that the Egyptian government – and not the Egyptian people – should take part in such a crime for fear of the Israelis, and in an attempt to appease the U.S., getting nothing in return except humiliation and dishonor."
Palestinian journalist Mustafa Sawwaf wrote on a Hamas-affiliated website: "The issue has nothing to do with Egyptian national security, and more to do with Egyptian policy. As far as the borders with the Gaza Strip and the steel wall are concerned, this policy is linked less to Egypt's interests and security as it has become a tool for implementing U.S. schemes in the region."
The wall, dubbed "the steel barrier" by Egyptian media, prompted a number of MPs to file reports to the attorney general against the country's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, as well as official inquiries to the parliament on the issue.
"It is pitiful that Egypt, who previously demolished Israel's Barleev wall during the Egyptian-Israeli war (1967-1973), is now bringing up this barricade." said Muslim Brotherhood MP Hamdy Hassan. "Our government is alleging that it is for the country's own security while it is just another effort to stiffen the ongoing siege over our fellow Muslims in Gaza."
Egypt has tightened its border with Gaza since Hamas gained control of the coastal strip in 2007. But the smuggling tunnels -- transporting a range of goods, weapons as well as baby food -- were considered a lifeline by Palestinians who faced shortages due to Israel's siege of the territory. Cairo wants to weaken Hamas but at the same time does not want to appear to be unsympathetic to Palestinians or too cozy with America and Israel.
-- Amro Hassan and Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
Photo: Construction on the Egyptian side of the borders with Gaza. Credit: Eyad Baba / Associated Press
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