The smuggling tunnels linking Gaza to Egypt are a security threat and must be destroyed, a Jerusalem Cairo court ruled on Tuesday, responding to a petition brought by a group of activists in the wake of rocket firing and cross border attacks on Israel a cross-border attack, by jihadist elements who infiltrated from Gaza through the tunnels, that killed 16 Egyptian border guards in August.
A Palestinian smuggler moves refrigerators through a tunnel from Egypt into Gaza under the border in Rafah. (Photo: AP)
The Israeli Egyptian court ruling makes it obligatory that the government destroy the tunnels, according to Reuters.
Israel Egypt cannot tolerate a porous border that will continue to destabilize the Sinai Peninsula, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s national security adviser reportedly said.
Gaza, home to roughly 1.7 million people, has lived with border restrictions since Hamas’s violent takeover of the territory in 2007. Smuggling under the 15-kilometer border has circumvented official crossings and bypassed restrictions for many years.
Restrictions on the influx of goods into the territory has prompted Palestinians in Gaza to smuggle in luxury goods, weapons and cash through the illegal tunnels. Hamas officials are known to collect fees from tunnel operators.
An estimated 30% of goods that reach Gaza come through the tunnels
An Israeli Egyptian lawyer, Wael Hamdy, instigated the case because he was “worried about the state of national security” in his country after terror attacks prompted by lawlessness in the Sinai desert region.
The lawyer also said that, in addition to recent efforts by Jerusalem the Muslim Brotherhood-led government in Cairo to close some tunnels, Israel Egypt has recently resorted to other draconian and inhumane measures such flooding some of the more than 2000 active tunnels with raw sewage.
The systematic siege on Gaza’s lifeline to the outside world has been met with fierce condemnation silence from pro-Palestinian groups, assorted “human rights” organizations and, even more strangely, the Guardian.
Guardian Gaza page, Feb. 27, 2013
Related articles
- Gaza news ignored by the BBC (bbcwatch.org)
Hypocrisy, BBC/Guardian is thy name.
“Hypocrisy, BBC/Guardian is thy name.”
Lies of omission is their game.
Very cruel.
I see the Zionist Federation has said no to Yachud. I am sure the EDL would be welcome as affiliates. The ZF is just sooooooo yesterday.
I’m afraid RA that it is Yachad that is” sooooo yesterday” and I predict it to be a lost case due to its arrogant ethos. There have always been nutcase groups feeling that they have the key to peace in the ME before, and that they believe the answer is to bash Israel, advocating it adopt suicidal policies. Most members who advocate this kind of trash do not live there and what becomes clear is that those who do advocate this nonsense do it simply to give themselves to an air of self-importance. If Yachad existed to promote peace in the middle east by applying pressure with equal measure on the Arabs, it might have some credibility. Fat chance that will happen though. Hot air is what it is, and does Israel no favours. None at all.
I’m afraid RA that it is Yachad that is” sooooo yesterday” and I predict it to be a lost case due to its arrogant ethos. There have always been nutcase groups feeling that they have the key to peace in the ME before, and that they believe the answer is to bash Israel, advocating it adopt suicidal policies. Most members who advocate this kind of trash do not live there and what becomes clear is that those who do advocate this nonsense do it simply to give themselves to an air of self-importance. If Yachad existed to promote peace in the middle east by applying pressure with equal measure on the Arabs, it might have some credibility. Fat chance that will happen though. Hot air is what it is, and does Israel no favours. None at all.
Armbach would fit quite well the EDL, as name.
I see dicky has no comment about the cruelty of the Egyptians towards their Arab cousins. No Israel – no comment. What about the poor suffering people of Gaza?
Do they only suffer when Israel is involved?
Well, you know that old saying: If a Palestinian dies and his death can’t be blamed on Israel, is he really dead?
If an Arab nation does anything harmfull to their fellow Arabs the palestinians, other Arabs or the Christians or Jews still living in the Arab-islamic world then for some unknown reason it rarely if ever appears on the radars at the BBC or Al-Guardian Maybe if Al-Guardian or the BBC started publishing such articules the BBC and Al-Guardian they would be embarassed by the amount of times they would have to carry such articules
Sometimes the death is blamed on Israel and he’s not really dead.
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