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Gaza Loses an Underground Lifeline

(Inter Press Service) Khaled Alashqar - The border between Egypt and Gaza used to buzz with activity until a few months back as traders brought in an array of Egyptian goods through hundreds of tunnels. But these underground structures have fallen silent since the Egyptian army came to power in Cairo. Calling them a security threat, it launched a systematic military campaign against the tunnels, destroying them, along with the houses under which they were built, on its side of the border. The Egyptian army has established a buffer zone of 500 meters along the border and set up security checkpoints. Thousands of tunnel operators, traders and workers have been hard hit. Abu Nabil, a Gaza resident who had operated a tunnel since 2007, said more than 90% of the passages have been destroyed by the Egyptian military. An estimated 20,000 tunnel workers are jobless. Egyptian military spokesperson Col. Ahmed Mohammad said: "The tunnels are used to smuggle militants and radical groups that threaten Egyptian national security. They should be destroyed." Prof. Sameer Abu-Mdalla of the economics faculty at Al-Azhar University in Gaza said that "the tunnels...led to the emergence of around 800 millionaires who used the income from operating tunnels for money laundering." The tunnels were also a conduit for Palestinian militant groups to smuggle weapons into Gaza for use against Israel.
2014-01-10 00:00:00
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