Rafah, January 07: Gaza’s tunnellers have been watching the cranes burying the iron fence along the border, but few believe Egypt will succeed in its latest bid to shut down the territory’s economic lifeline.
Tensions along the fenced border boiled over on Wednesday when Palestinian youths hurled rocks over the border and an Egyptian policeman was killed and five Palestinians wounded in cross-border gunbattles.
The vast network of tunnels from Gaza to Egypt, constructed in the sandy earth to bypass a crippling blockade, has weathered Israeli air strikes and Egyptian attempts to flood them with water and gas.
Egypt, citing national security, is now building an underground iron wall in a new bid to tighten its porous Sinai border with the restive Palestinian territory.
“They think by building an iron wall they will break our will,” said Hamas interior minister Fathi Hamad, a member of the armed Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip and is pledged to Israel’s destruction.
“But we say to them that we are steadfast in our path and will not relent or give in.”
Cairo — which states support for Palestinians and has long mediated between both Israel and Hamas and among Palestinian factions — has only implicitly admitted constructing the iron barrier and has provided no details on its size.
Media reports, however, said it would be 30 metres (100 feet) deep and 10 kilometres (six miles) long.
Egyptian construction crews are drilling iron beams with holes into the ground to flood the area with water.
They then install the iron fencing, which locals say has shut down some tunnels in sandier areas in recent weeks.
Hamas called Wednesday’s demonstration to protest the construction of the underground barrier, leading Egypt to deploy hundreds of officers along the border as well as fire trucks and ambulances amid concerns Palestinians might try to breach the border.
But few believe Cairo will expand the barrier along the entire 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) frontier or succeed in blocking the tunnels.
“The collapse of tunnels in this sandy area isn’t enough for there to be a siege and a closure,” says tunnel owner Abu Antar, asking that his full name not be published. “The wall is a media affair, because setting it up along the entire border is impossible.”
Othman, another tunnel owner who also spoke on condition his full name not be used, agrees. “Even if they turn the border into a moat filled with water it won’t stop the tunnels, because that would be the death of Gaza.
“We are already surmounting this wall,” he adds, without providing details.
The tunnels have largely replaced Gaza’s once vibrant private sector since Israel and Egypt sealed off its 1.5 million residents from all but vital humanitarian aid.
The action was taken after Hamas seized power in June 2007 in bloody fighting that drove out its more moderate, secular rival, Fatah — which holds sway on the West Bank.
The Gaza tunnels are used mainly to bring in food, fuel and other household goods. The smuggling routes are taxed and regulated by the Hamas-run government.
“The Palestinian resistance can surmount the siege and manufacture its weapons by itself,” Hamad, the Hamas interior minister said. “This wall will not be an obstacle for the resistance, the government or the people.”
Already in January 2008 hundreds of thousands of Gazans breached the border, pouring into Egypt to stock up on basic goods after militants blew up sections of the wall.
Though Hamas has publicly slammed the wall’s construction, its security forces have not taken any actions against it and have created a buffer zone to prevent vehicles from approaching the site.
“This is an Egyptian affair and we don’t interfere,” a Hamas police officer said as he patrolled a sand berm 70 metres (yards) from the border. “We just carry out orders from our leaders to protect the border.”
The Israeli blockade has been widely criticised for creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Despite official defiance, some Gazans fear the Egyptian wall may add to hardship.
Most Gazans would prefer to do away with the tunnels, in which scores of workers have been killed in cave-ins or by Israeli air strikes.
“If there were no tunnels it would force the Israelis and the world to find a solution for us,” a merchant says as he hawks potato chips and candy in a nearby market, the cartons coated in dust from being shipped underground.
—Agencies