Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels operating again despite IDF op

Original article
Jan 21, 2009 16:01 | Updated Jan 21, 2009 18:10
By Brenda Gazzar and AP

Smuggling into Gaza from Egypt is underway again, only days after the end of the IDF operation against Hamas.

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A Palestinian worker fills a canister with diesel fuel at the site of a smuggling tunnel used to bring fuel from Egypt to Gaza, next to the border in the Rafah refugee camp.

AP Television News footage showed Palestinian smugglers Wednesday filling a fuel truck with petrol that came through a cross-border tunnel from Egypt. The footage also shows workers busy clearing blocked tunnels and bulldozers carrying out other repairs.

One of the stated goals of the IDF offensive was to stop the smuggling through the hundreds of tunnels under the border. The goods coming through have included a steady flow of rockets and other weapons.

Israel has said eighty percent of the smuggling tunnels were destroyed in bombing raids during the IDF's Operation Cast Lead.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian official said on Wednesday that Cairo planned to discuss with Israel its desire to station additional border guards along the Philadelphi Corridor in order to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza.

"We expect to start negotiations about the Egyptian request to put an additional number of border guards (along the Philadelphi Corridor) soon," he said. "The idea is on the table and we will negotiate it."

The official would not say when it would be negotiated or how many additional troops Egypt would request to add. Many other proposals, including the moat proposal and building a barrier around the Egyptian part of Rafah, are currently "being studied" by Egypt, he said.

Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, was scheduled to visit Egypt on Thursday.

Similarly, the London-based newspaper, Al-Hayat on Wednesday quoted Mohammed Bassiouny, chairman of the Egyptian Parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, as saying that there were ongoing Israeli-Egyptian negotiations concerning doubling the number of Egyptian forces at the border.

"We requested another 750 soldiers to monitor this region in addition to the 750 soldiers from the border guard unit that are already there after Egypt signed the protocol with Israel," he said

In contrast to the Egyptian source who talked to the Jerusalem Post, Bassiouny indicated that Egyptian-Israeli negotiations were already taking place in an effort to achieve this goal, according to Al-Hayat.