RAFAH: Gaza’s tunnel smugglers along the border with Egypt are mostly idle these days.
Some rest on cots in the dank underground pathways, stretching out for a smoke. Others pass the time cleaning the small carts on wheels that are normally pulled through the tunnels carrying cement or consumer goods from Egypt.
Since the summer, Egypt’s military has tried to destroy or seal off most of the smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, a consequence of the heightened tensions between Cairo and the Hamas government in Gaza.
The tunnels have served for years as a lifeline for Gaza, home to some 1.7 million Palestinians.
They became particularly important after Hamas overran the territory in 2007, prompting Israel and Mursi’s Western-backed predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, to impose a stifling border blockade.
Israel has eased the blockade in recent years, but still restricts the imports of some goods, including cement and steel rods. Until recently, the tunnels served as a conduit for such construction materials and for subsidized Egyptian fuel.
The tunnels once employed thousands of young men in Gaza. By early September, with most tunnels closed, only few tunnel workers reported to their jobs for maintenance work. Some mask their faces with shirts to avoid identification while working, for fear of repercussions in case they were to travel to Egypt in the future.
Some began digging new tunnels to replace the ones destroyed by the Egyptian security forces.
“We have no other alternative but to work in these tunnels,” said one of the workers, Hussam Rashwan. “They are the only crossing to bring needed goods to Gaza.”
From the Gaza side, some of the workers watched as bulldozers leveled an olive grove on the Egyptian side of the border, marked by a low wall. The Gazans said they’d learned from their Egyptian smuggling partners that the army had just destroyed a house built on top of a tunnel, and the bulldozers were now presumably clearing away any other cover where one could be hidden.
“Egypt treats us like an enemy,” said Asaad Najar, 46, a father of nine. He said he used to make between $30 and $40 a day, a good income for Gaza, but now earns nothing.
Gaza tunnel smugglers idle amid Egypt crackdown
Gaza tunnel smugglers idle amid Egypt crackdown
Israeli military says unintentionally struck UN agency truck in Gaza
- “Our teams are taking extraordinary risks every day to keep humanitarian operations and life-sustaining services running,” UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said in a statement, calling for an investigation into the incident
TEL AVIV: Israel’s military said on Friday that a “firing component” launched by its navy unintentionally struck a fuel truck belonging to a United Nations agency in Gaza the previous day, an incident that prompted the agency to publicly call for a full investigation.
The United Nations Office for Project Services, which oversees fuel distribution in Gaza, said that the empty fuel truck was struck on Thursday around 5 a.m. from the direction of the sea, causing damage to the vehicle. There were no injuries.
“Our teams are taking extraordinary risks every day to keep humanitarian operations and life-sustaining services running,” UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said in a statement, calling for an investigation into the incident.
“They should not have to do that under fire,” he said.
In response to Reuters questions, the Israeli military said that the incident occurred during defensive naval activity, and that a firing component deviated from its intended trajectory.
The fuel truck sustained “minor damage,” the military said in a statement. The military did not say what type of munitions had been fired, or what had been the navy’s intended target.
“The incident was reviewed, and lessons were learned accordingly,” it said, without providing further details.
The fuel truck had been on its way to the Kerem Shalom crossing when it was struck, and the truck’s movements had been coordinated with Israeli authorities in advance, UNOPS said.
