Collapsed Gaza tunnel traps Palestinians

Grant

Grant

Honorary Master
Joined
Mar 27, 2007
Messages
69,825
Reaction score
38,370
Location
Behind the grassy knoll
Palestinian Territories - Six Palestinians were trapped and another was missing Thursday after a Gaza smuggling tunnel collapsed, a local civil defence official said.

He described the underground passage from the southern Gaza town of Rafah into neighbouring Egypt as a "trade tunnel".

The cave-in, the sixth since January, was caused by Egyptian flooding of the border zone in its campaign to stop smuggling, the official told AFP.

Authorities have spoken to one of the trapped men by mobile telephone and rescue efforts are under way, he added.

Since January 26, 12 Gazans have been killed in five separate tunnel collapses with both Israel and Egypt operating against the diggers.

An Israeli blockade severely restricts the movement of people and goods into and out of the territory, and Egypt's sole border with Gaza has also remained largely closed since 2013.

The passages to Egypt are used for transit of commercial goods, cash, people and, allegedly, weapons.

In late 2014, as part of an attempt to restore peace in its restive northern Sinai region, Egypt began setting up a buffer zone on its border with Gaza and destroyed hundreds of tunnels.

At the other end of the coastal Palestinian territory, near the border with Israel, Gaza's militant Islamic Hamas rulers have built tunnels to avoid or launch attacks, store weapons and at times to stage raids into Israel.
Click to expand...
http://www.enca.com/world/collapsed-gaza-tunnel-traps-palestinians
 
Israel needs to stop this cr@p. How anyone can support them when they've set up the world's biggest concentration camp is beyond ludicrous.
 
Beerisgood said:
Israel needs to stop this cr@p. How anyone can support them when they've set up the world's biggest concentration camp is beyond ludicrous.
Click to expand...

Just wondering why it's solely Israels fault. The border to the Egypt is also largely closed:

...and Egypt's sole border with Gaza has also remained largely closed since 2013.
Click to expand...
 
McT said:
Just wondering why it's solely Israels fault. The border to the Egypt is also largely closed:
Click to expand...

Eh because the Palestinians have to resort to such measures in order to get basic supplies into Gaza.

1ef53e8c5a.jpg
 
It doesn't have to be this way, that's all I'm going to say (and I'm not talking about Egypt or Israel).
 
Beerisgood said:
Eh because the Palestinians have to resort to such measures in order to get basic supplies into Gaza.
Click to expand...
hogwash
Just shows how little you know of the situation.
You dont query why Egypt have blocked the border and why the palestinians have to dig tunnels into Egypt.

No, lets accuse Israel, not taking into account that Gaza is an enemy entity and yet...wait for it, the basic supplies you mention, Israel sends around 500 - 1000 trucks a day into Gaza.

A record volume of imports is expected to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in 2015, about 140,000 truckloads.

This will be about double the 70,000 truckloads that made their way via Kerem Shalom, the main entry point for cargo into the Gaza Strip, in 2014, before and after Operation Protective Edge, the Crossings Authority in the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.This year is expected to see an average of 600-650 trucks pass through the border point each working day.



Egypt has cracked down on smuggling from Sinai to Gaza and has kept its Rafah crossing to the Strip closed most of the time, increasing demand for goods in the Palestinian territory.

So far this year, inspectors at Kerem Shalom have thwarted 250 attempts to smuggle contraband materials into Gaza, equaling the number for all of 2014. Israel imposed a blockade on the Strip after Hamas seized control there in 2007, to prevent the entry of materials that could be used to build rockets or attack tunnels.

Recently the security forces foiled the import of more than 13 tons of fuel additive, intended to be used for the production of rockets by Hamas, tens of thousands of industrial goods meant to strengthen Hamas’s military capability. Some of the contraband was hidden in slabs of marble, automotive parts, ceramic products and boxes of fruit.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Kamil Abu Rokon, head of the Crossings Authority, said, “As part of the defense minister’s policies regarding the Gaza Strip, the Crossings Authority is now preparing for an increase in the rate of goods passing through the Kerem Shalom crossing, up to some 1,000 trucks a day. Almost every month we ‘break’ the record achieved in the previous month. Along with this, we will continue to fight, using all the resources at our disposal, those who are trying to smuggle contraband into Gaza to support terrorist elements.”
Click to expand...
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Volume-of-goods-entering-Gaza-to-double-this-year-409137
 
Beerisgood said:
Israel needs to stop this cr@p. How anyone can support them when they've set up the world's biggest concentration camp is beyond ludicrous.
Click to expand...
I think this is important:
The cave-in, the sixth since January, was caused by Egyptian flooding of the border zone in its campaign to stop smuggling, the official told AFP.
Click to expand...
So not Israel's fault it collapsed.

Amazing how it's suddenly a "trade tunnel".
http://www.enca.com/world/hamas-gunmen-die-gaza-border-tunnel-collapse
GAZA - Seven Hamas gunmen were killed when a tunnel collapsed close to the Gaza Strip's eastern border with Israel, the Islamist militant group's armed wing said on Thursday.

It said the collapse occurred on Tuesday night as a result of heavy rain and it took two days to find the bodies and announce the deaths. Mosques across the Palestinian enclave mourned those killed, calling them "Martyrs of the Preparation", a reference to their work digging tunnels used to attack Israel.

"The Mujahedin martyrs were repairing an old tunnel, from which a number of operations were executed in the (2014) war," a statement issued by the Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades said.

"The fathers of these martyrs should be proud. The whole world will witness the deeds of their tunnels against the (Israeli) occupier should they dare (to attack) our people and our land," it added.
Click to expand...
 
lived666 said:
hogwash
Just shows how little you know of the situation.
You dont query why Egypt have blocked the border and why the palestinians have to dig tunnels into Egypt.

No, lets accuse Israel, not taking into account that Gaza is an enemy entity and yet...wait for it, the basic supplies you mention, Israel sends around 500 - 1000 trucks a day into Gaza.


http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Volume-of-goods-entering-Gaza-to-double-this-year-409137
Click to expand...

The amazing thing is, that even though Hamas are at war with Israel, Israel still allows any supplies at all to cross their borders. Imagine if they just did an Egypt? But hey, Egypt don't even allow people to cross, never mind supplies, and no-one bats an eyelid. Absolutely astounding.

Every single person who criticises Israel citing occupation is a hypocrite.
 
Nicodeamus said:
They have a tunnel and explosive based economy.
Click to expand...

Should bring the Palestinians here to work in our mines .... they apparently dig well and are good at blasting.

Imagine what their rocket skills could offer in the way of riot control.
 
Spizz said:
And ended in 2005.
Click to expand...

Nope.

"Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a State nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border, and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will.

Israel continues to control six of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Troops from the Israeli Defence Force regularly enter pans of the territory and/or deploy missile attacks, drones and sonic bombs into Gaza. Israel has declared a no-go buffer zone that stretches deep into Gaza: if Gazans enter this zone they are shot on sight.

Gaza is also dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications and other utilities, currency, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry.

It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied.

Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza."
Click to expand...
 
trade-tunnel.jpg
 
lived666 said:
hogwash
Just shows how little you know of the situation.
You dont query why Egypt have blocked the border and why the palestinians have to dig tunnels into Egypt.

No, lets accuse Israel, not taking into account that Gaza is an enemy entity and yet...wait for it, the basic supplies you mention, Israel sends around 500 - 1000 trucks a day into Gaza.


http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Volume-of-goods-entering-Gaza-to-double-this-year-409137
Click to expand...

Israel's propaganda machine at work, there's no mention that Israel limits the quantity of goods that enter Gaza,


This restriction has been in place ever since Hama's won the democratic election.

So now Israel has increased the quota, big deal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X