Tunnels: One man's cease-fire is another's rearmament

Jan. 21, 2009

No sooner did a cease-fire come into effect then Hamas went to work preparing for the next round. Der Spiegel reports on how some militants went to work clearing out the tunnels used for weapons smuggling:

It's clean-up time in the southern Gaza Strip. In the Brazil refugee camp, right on the border with Egypt, the operators of the infamous tunnels used to smuggle goods and weapons in from Egypt have come to assess the damage caused by the Israeli bombardment. A woman sits and wails in front of a pile of rubble which once must have been a four or five-story house. Her husband and children carry debris on to the street.

"Sure, there was a tunnel which started in the basement of this house," says Hassan, 28, who is employed as a tunnel digger four houses further on. ...

Before the Israeli offensive in Gaza started, a large proportion of the weapons being smuggled to Hamas came through the 200 to 400 tunnels along the 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. It's true that the Israeli bombardment was massive, one of the tunnel diggers says, but only half the tunnels were destroyed at most.

..."Everything's okay," he gasps and lies down on the ground, breathing heavily. "A lot of sand has got in, it'll take us a while to shovel it all out. But I managed to get across to the other side. Our friends in Egypt send their regards."

Let the games begin.

Benjamin Netanyahu, a frontrunner in Israel's upcoming elections, provided a dour assessment on a job not done:

“The IDF has dealt Hamas some very hard blows on the head, but regrettably the job has not been finished,” he said. "Hamas still controls Gaza and it will continue to smuggle new missiles in through the Philadelphi Route. I believe that in the face of Hamas' terror and its Iranian backing, we must show no weakness and we must show a resolute, iron fist, until the enemy is vanquished.”

Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head Yuval Diskin confirmed that some tunnels used for weapons smuggling remain intact and that Hamas would be able to rebuild the other tunnels within a few months.