Can't Gaza Tunnelling Work Both Ways?

I wonder if some cynical satirist is thinking that tunnels in Gaza can work both ways and he came up with a new plan:

and then, rehabilitation begins:

P.S.

If Hamas or their supporters refer to this as an official Israeli government initiative, as usual, they lie.


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From here:

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What Did They Do With the Dirt?

I was wondering: what did Hamas do with all the dirt they dug out of the ground?

A friend sent me to the La Manche Tunnel experience:

On the UK side, of the expected 5 million cubic metres (6.5×10⁶ cu yd) of spoil, approximately 1 million cubic metres (1.3×10⁶ cu yd) was used for fill at the terminal site, and the remainder was deposited at Lower Shakespeare Cliff behind a seawall, reclaiming 74 acres (30 ha) of land. This land was then made into the Samphire Hoe Country Park. 

In Gaza, they could have extended themselves seawards and enabled better living conditions.

Oh, well.

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The Terrible Terror Tunnel Tragedy

Many are upset at the presumed lack of adequate attention paid to those terror tunnels of the Hamas in Gaza.

But let's look back:

Israel mounts air strike on Gaza tunnels overnightPA sources say 22 Gazans injured; strike comes after Gaza militants blow up dynamite-laden donkey cart near border with Israel.May 26, 2010 

IAF hits Gaza tunnels in wake of bombing attempt by seaPalestinians claim responsibility for attempted attack, say more explosive-laden barrels in sea.  Feb. 2, 2010

Air Force Bombs Gaza Tunnels after Rocket AttackThe IDF continues to execute government policy of bombing Gaza smuggling tunnels—but only after terrorists attack Israel with missiles.  May 5, 2010

And already in 2007:

Israeli aircraft have launched a bombing raid on a tunnel in the Gaza Strip, the country's military has said.
An army spokesman said the tunnel, on the border with Israel near the Karni crossing, was being used to carry out an attack. No casualties were reported. Secondary explosions seen after the air strike indicated explosives were hidden in the tunnel, the army spokesman said.  The move comes the day after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed three Israelis in the resort of Eilat.

And in 2006:

Terror Tunnel Found in Gaza 
August 28, 2006

A detonated tunnel, originally designed to facilitate terror attacks in Israeli territory, dug in the direction of the Karni humanitarian crossing between Israel and Gaza.

And

August 30, 2006

A detonated tunnel, originally designed to facilitate

terror attacks in Israeli territory, 

located near the Karni humanitarian crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Did humanitarian agencies assist in these matter, i.e., are Israeli citizens humans to deserve attention from terror?

Here:

The blockade prohibits most exports and restricts the entry of basic goods, including food and fuel. Much of the available food is provided by the UN and other aid agencies, or smuggled in through tunnels running under the Egypt-Gaza border and then sold on at exorbitantly high prices to Gaza’s beleaguered residents. The situation has been made worse by the Egyptian government’s construction of a steel wall along the border at Rafah to disrupt the cross-border smuggling that has become Gaza’s lifeline, as well as the bombing of tunnels by the Israeli airforce.

That was Amnesty International. 

I caught tonight the former Southern Front Commanding Officer Yoav Galant complaining, too.  But Hagai Humberman recounts in Matzav Ruach this week that back in July 2010, after another tunnel bombing, he asked Galant why, if Israel knows tunnels are being dug into Israel that it waits until some terror action to bomb them?

Galant responded that these tunnels are know, they really aren't that much of a danger, don't worry and we are taking care of them with or without a rocket being fired off.

More than a tragedy.

P.S.

IDF Spokesperson reconfirms to IMRA:  4 tunnels found today but no tunnelsdestroyed - as explosives cannot be detonated during the humanitarianceasefire    ---    Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 12:43 AM 27 July 2014
Following reports in the media that the IDF "handled" 4 tunnels on Saturdayduring the humanitarian ceasefire:
The IDF Spokesperson's Office reconfirmed to IMRA that the 4 tunnelsdiscovered on Saturday were discovered but not destroyed.   No tunnels havebeen destroyed during the course of the humanitarian ceasefire as the IDF detonates explosives to blow up the tunnels and the IDF does not detonate explosives during the ceasefire.

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They Keep Getting Shot

There are complaints that Israel doesn't treat Gaza Arabs who are near the security fence properly.

I am fairly sure we're doing better than Egypt, however:-

Egyptian army shoots 2 Palestinians crossing through Gaza tunnel

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Egyptian army shot and wounded two Palestinian youths as they exited a tunnel from the Gaza Strip...Security sources told a Ma'an reporter in Cairo that after the two youths exited the tunnel, Egyptian border police chased them and subsequently opened fire.  The youths were taken under heavy guard to the Rafah General Hospital.

A military source said that the two youths were "smugglers" and would be taken for interrogation in order to discern the reasons for their crossing to the Egyptian side.

Perhaps the Egyptians assume they are terrorists?

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Another Collapsed Palestinian

Reported:

Palestinian Killed In Tunnel Accident In Rafah


Palestinian medical sources reported Thursday that a Palestinian was killed and another was injured when a siege-busting tunnel, on the Gaza Egypt border, collapse [sic] while they were working inside it. The Higher Committee for Medical and Emergency services reported that the killed resident is in his twenties.It is worth mentioning that more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in similar tunnel incidents, and more than 800 have been injured since 2006.

Very worthwhile knowing.

However is this classified as martyrdom status, including the 72, or categorized as a work accident or a form of "Palestinian suicide"?


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Gaza Man Killed

In a tunnel.

No, not Israel.

A Palestinian man was killed and two others sustained injuries as they fell inside a smuggling tunnel under the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip Saturday morning.

Dangerous, those tunnels.


P.S.

At least 14 rockets launched against Israel in the past week.

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Like Gaza, Like the United States

Reported:-

Mexican troops have discovered an unfinished 300-meter (980-foot) tunnel beneath the US border that would likely have been used to smuggle drugs and people, officials said Friday. Mexican General Alfonso Duarte announced the find, saying the entrance to the tunnel was inside a house in the border town of Tijuana that was made to appear as though it was under construction.

He added that 10 people were detained in the operation, including a woman who had been helping to dig the tunnel for nearly a year.

The tunnel was around 1.8 meters (six feet) high and a meter (three feet) wide, and had a lighting and ventilation system, officials said.

US officials said in June that more than 150 secret tunnels for smuggling people and drugs into the United States have been found since 1990...

And you would have thought that the US would have been more sympathetic to Israel's security needs, instead of Condi conning Sharon over the Philadephi Corridor carastrophe:

Condoleezza Rice, when Secretary of State, urged Israel to vacate the vital security strip separating Egyptian Sinai from the Gaza Strip as a peaceful gesture to the Palestinian Arabs: Another land for peace disaster in which the Arabs always receive land but in which the Israelis never receive peace.

Following the infamous and tragic disengagement from Gaza in 2005, forced upon the Jewish villagers in Gush Katif by Ariel Sharon, Israel gave up control of the Philadelphi Corridor to the Palestinian Authority in September of that year. Meanwhile, massive smuggling continued. It was only a matter of time before Hamas, the little Muslim Brotherhood, evicted their Fatah rivals in a bloody coup in 2007. Hamas, with its charter calling for Israel’s extermination, has now ruled the Gaza Strip since then, including occupying the Philadelphi Corridor.

What folly.  What abuse of power.

Your congressman, should you be an American citizen, should be alerted to this.

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RIP: Sami Ahmad An-Nadi

Reported:-

A 22-year-old worker was killed Monday when a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed, medics said.  Sami Ahmad An-Nadi, from Khan Younis, was trapped in the tunnel in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said An-Nadi's body was taken to the Abu Yousif An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.

The spokesman said over 160 workers have been killed in tunnel accidents since February 2006.

But you noticed "since 2006"?  Why then did the 'closures' begin?  After the Shalit kidnapping which occurred on June 25, 2006.

So, who is to blame?

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Will It All Fall In?

Will the border between Egypt and Gaza collapse and all fall in?

Why?

Well -

Report: 1,200 smuggling tunnels into Gaza

Egyptian state newspaper al-Ahram reported on Saturday of the Hamas smuggling tunnel industry in Gaza. According to the report, some 1,200 tunnels operate on the border between Egypt and the Strip, with the costs of digging out each tunnel reaching some $50,000.

If each tunnel is 1.5 meters wide, more or less, that equals an empty quotient of 1.8 kilometers of empty soil. At this rate, a little more digging should do the trick.

Without Physical Presence At 'Philiadelphi Corridor' - Nada

Sarah Topol is a tunnel tourist:

...I had come to Gaza's border with Egypt to see for myself the infamous underground smuggling tunnels...Finding the tunnels proved much easier than I had expected...Approximately 70 yards from the border, we hit dozens of tattered white tents, organized row upon row, tens of feet apart. Each tent houses the mouth of a tunnel that snakes beneath the border to Egypt.

..."What are the tents for?" I ask Mahmoud.

"They are to protect from sun and rain," he answers.

"It's not to keep the tunnels secret?"

"The tunnels are not a secret!" he exclaims over the din of generators and the frantic scraping of shovels.


Although Israel claims to have destroyed 60 to 70 percent of the tunnels, and has threatened to resume bombing if they are re-opened, reconstruction and tunnel activity are barely concealed in the broad daylight...Jamil el-Masri, a self-proclaimed tunnel owner, allows us to step into his tent with the promise that we not photograph anything...I catch my first glimpse of a tunnel.

The wood-lined passageway comes up three feet out of the ground. A generator-powered pulley is suspended over the foreboding opening to hoist the goods. The tunnel descends almost 40 feet into the ground and runs over 650 feet across the border before opening near a farm on the Egyptian side, Jamil boasts.

...Standing above the opening, I look down, my head spinning from the vertigo. Jagged wooden planks resembling a ladder descend into the shaft. At the bottom, a dark outline of a man is illuminated each time he takes a pull of his cigarette. A string of small white lights runs down one side. I ask Jamil if I can climb down. My request is met with laughter and a chorus of "Nos!" from the tunnel workers. I press on; I am the only one in the group who wants to descend. After a few minutes of persistence, Jamil relents, shaking his head, and asks if I would prefer to climb or be lowered by the pulley. I can't tell if he's teasing, but choose to climb, asking half-jokingly if I can use the pulley as a support grip.


Jamil tells one of his workers to guide me. Ahmed, about 30, with curly hair and matching denim pants and jacket, effortlessly scrambles down...Hooking my hands and arms onto each rung of the makeshift ladder, I slowly lower one alternating foot at a time. Some steps are too far apart for me to firmly plant my foot before letting go, but it's always only a few inches until my foot catches on the next wood slab. I count nine rungs, willing my breathing to slow, until I loose count. A few steps later, the ladder ends. Unable to look down, I hear Mahmoud shout for me to place my feet in grooves carved inside the earthen wall.

"Right foot!" he bellows. "Left!" Until finally, I drop into the tunnel.

More here.

Is That 'Half Empty' or 'Half Full'?

Barak: Half of weapon smuggling tunnels destroyed along Gaza border

...Barak said that Israel had destroyed about half of the "active" weapons-smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border during the recent 22-day military operation in Gaza....Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that Egypt can "dramatically reduce" Palestinian weapons smuggling along the Gaza border, and is more inclined to act following Israel's recent military operation in Gaza.

Half of more than 5 tons of explosives, ammunition and more is a helluva lot of terror.

So maybe all Barak brought Israel was not half but nuthin'?

We Didn't Do It

5 Palestinians killed after Egypt forces detonate smuggling tunnels

At least five Palestinians were killed and four others were wounded on Tuesday when Egyptian forces blew up two smuggling tunnels beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border, medical workers and residents said. Residents said the tunnels, used to bring goods from Egypt into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, collapsed when Egyptian soldiers detonated explosives in an attempt to curb smuggling.

Egyptian officials were not immediately available for comment.

That was the headline and the story as it appeared in today's Haaretz and quoted from Reuters.

But Reuters had this headline:-

Five Palestinians die in Gaza border tunnel blasts

Haaretz was...cheating?

Or was Reuters not reporting something newsworthy?

Like Arabs killing Arabs. Shades of Menachem Begin. Remember?

Goyim kill goyim and the Jews are blamed

P.S. And notice that the Egyptians don't give a damn about the media. They aren't available. In fact, they've been killing more Pals. recently than Israel.

As the AP reports:-

In recent months, 42 people have been killed in tunnel collapses.

The Pals., of course, don't mention anything about terror support regarding these tunnels. For example, PNN reports:-

Palestinians are using these tunnels to import food, fuel and other necessities from the Egyptian side during the Israeli economic blockade on the Gaza Strip and its 1.6 million residents.

"Other necessities"? Hmmm.

Even the Winston-Salem Journal gets it right:-

Palestinians use many tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border to smuggle in weapons, cash and contraband.

Gazans Gassed...

...by Egyptians (oops).

Hamas blames Gaza tunnel deaths on Egypt

The Islamist group Hamas said on Monday Egypt was responsible for the deaths of eight Palestinians because it used water, gas and explosives to seal a network of tunnels under its border with the Gaza Strip.

Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Ehab al-Ghsain criticised Egypt's anti-smuggling tactics as dangerous. [gee, and I thought that the smugglers of guns, ammunition and explosives were the dangerous ones] Three Palestinians were crushed to death on Monday when their tunnel under the border collapsed, medics said. Five others suffocated on Aug 1.

Smugglers have dug dozens of tunnels to move people and contraband, including arms and ammunition, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, which is blockaded by Israel.

...Egyptian security sources confirmed that Egypt had pumped gas into tunnels in recent months before sealing them off. They said the gas was not harmful and was used to prevent Palestinians from trying to re-enter the tunnels.

Do I thank Egypt or what?