29 Apr 2010 8:01 AM
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Hamas officials say Egyptian forces pumped noxious gas into Gaza smuggling tunnels on Wednesday, killing four workers, the Washington Post reports.
Inside a Gaza tunnel. The Post reports: "Many of the tunnels, dug with electrical drills and running side by side under the border, are just high enough to enable workers to move on all fours. Their entrances are covered by tents and they are equipped with motorized pulleys to haul goods and generator-powered lighting."
Smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt are a life-line for those living through the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip. WIth crossings into Egypt and Israel closed for weeks at a time and only open sporadically, the only reliable way to get food, building materials, clothing, fuel, and other necessities into Gaza are through the black market smuggling tunnels between southern Gaza and Egypt.
Egypt has been under pressure to close the tunnel trade from their side, as Israel and the international community insist the tunnel trade is just a way to supply Hamas militants with weapons. Egypt has been constructing a subterranean wall that would cut off the tunnels, but Hamas is accusing Egypt of taking their task one step further by fatally gassing Palestinian workers in the tunnels.
An unnamed Hamas security official who works the tunnel area along Gaza's border with Egypt said the tunnels were filled with a kind of crowd-dispersal gas. The Hamas Interior Ministry's official statement said the gas pumped into the tunnels was poisonous:
"The Interior Ministry confirms that the citizens' cause of death was the Egyptian security forces spraying poison gasses into one of the tunnels."
The statement gives no further elaboration. Rafah physician Dr. Hamdan Abu Latifa said the tunnel workers died of suffocation - likely the lack of ventilation caused the tear gas-like agent to turn deadly in the closed space.
Egyptian border security refused to comment on Wednesday. Hamas officials say Egyptian security forces have pumped gas into the tunnels before, a report confirmed by tunnel operators. However, the Wednesday incident was the first fatal account. A Hamas official has demanded explanation for the four deaths:
"This is a terrible crime committed by Egyptian security against simple Palestinian workers who were trying to earn their daily bread," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum to The Associated Press. "It was a killing in cold blood. Hamas and all the Palestinian people condemn it strongly.
"We demand that Egypt explain its position about what is happening and investigate the circumstances of this terrible crime and show the truth to the entire world and hold those responsible accountable."
The tunnels in Gaza have been the target of not only Egyptian sabotage but also Israeli air strikes, especially during the 2008-2009 Israeli offensive in Gaza. Worker have also been killed in tunnel collapses. The theory behind the siege and tunnel attacks is if Gaza is so squeeze by the blockage, they will call for Hamas to step down. The strategy has so far not worked since Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007. The international community, including the United States, has called for Israel to end the siege.
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Posted
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29 Apr 2010 8:01 AM
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Editor
Posted By
ouithepeople
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29 Apr 2010 10:41 AM
The article says "...the only reliable way to get food, building materials, clothing, fuel, and other necessities into Gaza are through the black market smuggling tunnels..." Then a Hamas spokesperson is quoted "We demand that ... those responsible (are held) accountable." Hello, Pot, it's Kettle calling.
Hamas is at fault here for having taken over the Gaza strip. The only hope for resolution in Palestine is compromise. The claim Hamas makes that Israel has no right to exist — right or wrong, doesn't matter — places a road block in the way of any attempt at peace and reconciliation negotiations. You want to blame someone, Hamas? Then take the blame yourselves and start the conversation from there. This may be a very western way of thinking, but I am a Palestinian supporter and I believe Hamas to be in the wrong.
I must state that I believe the creation of Israel was more wrong, but that will not help the plight of the native Palestinians. What can help them is compromise and resolving this argument. The Nazi's were responsible for an atrocity, which the (Western) world then tried to counter — with yet another atrocity. The creation of the Israeli state was not done well. I think many informed folks could agree with that. However, if the Palestinian people are to ever thrive in their native land again, they must band together and work WITH the Israelis and the global community. Palestinians have rights. Those rights have been violated and these people deserve reparations NOT retribution.
But I digress... Point is: Hamas, you are as much to blame for this situation as are the Egyptians. They're not called "black market smuggling tunnels" for nothing. Let go of some of your ideology to empower your voice in the conversation for peace and coexistence or prepare to be defeated (I'll grant you that defeat may be another thousand years of fighting). Even thoughtful Palestinian supporters like myself think you're defeating yourselves.
ouithepeople (of Planet Earth)
Posted By
Helmi Adnan
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29 Apr 2010 12:16 PM
I do not agree with you. They died after they ate fool in egypt and the gas in tunnel was methane ...if you know what i mean.
Posted By
News
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10 May 2010 4:47 AM
Gazans who work in the smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt have found a way through Egypt's
Posted By
News
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17 May 2010 7:39 AM
Washington - The temperature of Hamas-Egypt relations appears to have hit a record low as Egyptian daily
