Palestinian man transports a sheep from Egypt to Gaza via an underground tunnel, 2009. (Photo: Said Khatib/Agence France-Presse)
I've heard of a few different instances where desperate friends have crawled through the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, seeking to either enter after the Israeli military has shooed them away, or leave with the intent to never return. Yet the details in these stories are always sparse, or forgotten; people don't often freely discuss clandestine border crossings.
But yesteday in the New York Times Mondoweiss contributor Ruqaya Izzidien's first hand account fills in some of the blanks on Gaza's estimated 1,500 underground thoroughfares:
As I stepped onto three wobbly bricks leading into the tunnel, the first thing I heard was 'Watch your head.' This phrase would be repeated many times during the 1,000-foot walk to the Gaza side. After about the 10th warning, I yelled up the tunnel, 'I'm much more worried about being bombed than grazing my head!' My guide, who, like the others I spoke with here, refused to give his name for fear of the authorities, guffawed. It took him half a minute to recover from the 'ridiculousness' of my concern.
There were four more workers just inside the mouth of the tunnel. As they crouched on the ground, intertwined with the pulley system, the workers transported crushed stones that would be used to make bricks for construction in Gaza. It is a painstaking process. The stones arrive by the ton and have to be loaded by hand into the tunnel, where they are placed in large blue plastic baskets that are connected to form a long train.
Empty baskets whizzed past us and jolted to a stop at the tunnel's entrance.
'This is our life,' said one of the workers, his face iced in a layer of white dust. 'Life is expensive, and Rafah is even more high-priced than Cairo. So we are forced to work and live underground.'
Read Izzidien's full article here.
thank you allison. i visited the tunnels once.had the opportunity to go down but i declined.
it’s infuriating, the humiliation israel demands of palestinians.
Israel, Annie? The tunnels run under the Egyptian border.
Winnica,
We’ve been over this before. Through the Israeli agreements with Egypt and the PA, Israel insisted on controlling all border points, even the one from Egypt. No goods, only pedestrians are allowed through the Rafah crossing from Egypt, and Israel still maintains the final say on who is allowed through, All goods from Egypt must go through the Israeli crossing at Kerem Shalom.
link to gisha.org
As I suggested to others, you might want to actually inform yourself and read the link instead of repeating false memes incessantly.
We’ve been over this before. Through the Israeli agreements with Egypt and the PA, Israel insisted on controlling all border points, even the one from Egypt. No goods, only pedestrians are allowed through the Rafah crossing from Egypt, and Israel still maintains the final say on who is allowed through, All goods from Egypt must go through the Israeli crossing at Kerem Shalom.
That’s not correct, but certainly agree that’s how it works. The 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access specifically provided for the export of goods through the Rafah crossing.
See the summary on page 2 of 6 link to ochaopt.org
In addition the negotiators announced they had achieved an agreement on facilitating the movement of people and goods within the Palestinian Territories and on opening an international crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border that will put the Palestinians in control of the entry and exit of people.
Nothing in the agreement with the PA would prevent goods from Egypt from arriving at the Gaza Seaport:
The parties agreed that:
– link to consilium.europa.eu
In addition the Security Council ordered that unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza be resumed on the “continuous” basis stipulated by the 2005 AMA.
link to un.org
The 3rd party implementation procedure contained in the 2005 agreement only requires Egypt to operate its side of the border in accordance with international standards, in accordance with Palestinian law and subject to the terms of the agreement. The agreement does not say that Israel has any final say in how the border operates: “Israel has no effective physical control of the crossing which is controlled by Hamas on one side and the Egyptian authorities on the other” — H.C.J. 7761/08, Bur’i v. Defense Minister, Respondents ‘ reply dated September 22, 2008, para. 6
Tree,
I assure you, I’m far better informed than most people on this site, though I choose to remain anonymous – as do many others.
The link you sent me to, in case you haven’t noticed, is from January 2007. A bit of water have flowed down the Mississippi since then, you know? The Nile, too. I assure you – from direct knowledge, not from websites – that the Israelis have no control over the decisions the Egyptians make about what crosses their border with Gaza and what doesn’t. If there are still tunnels under the Egyptian border with Gaza, it’s not because of any Israeli policy, pressure, or secret domination over the Egyptians.
Further down you cite another Gisha report, from the beginning of 2010. Again, it my have slipped your attention, but in the early summer of 2010 Israel made some major changes to its policy on what could or couldn’t enter (and leave) Gaza through the Israeli border crossings, so that your source is no longer relevant. But even if it were, this thread is about the Egyptian border, not the Israeli one, so it’s irrelevant.
Winnica
“I assure you I’m far better informed than most people on this site ”
It’s a pity you haven’t been able to make the jump from data to insight
seafoid -
The reason I frequent this site (when I frequent it) is to probe the insights you people have, and to see what responses different comments generate. It’s fascinating, I assure you, and I appreciate the opportunity.
Daniel Ellsberg comments in his book Secrets how people with access to classified information think the views of people who do not have such access are uninformed and basically worthless. He then remarks on how wrong the people with such access (including himself) were about Vietnam and other things.
I’m sure it is, honey. It’s a pity you picked the wrong horse. And your modesty is humbling.
I assure you, I’m far better informed than most people on this site, though I choose to remain anonymous – as do many others.
Well then you ought to know that the ICRC and UNRWA have labeled the closure collective punishment, which is a war crime. The humanitarian watchdogs noted that delivery of humanitarian aid alone won’t solve the problem because the closure and Cast Lead have destroyed the local economy and infrastructure. So the ICRC and UNRWa have demanded that Israel relax the blockade and lift the closure.
UNRWA and the Arab Network for Humanitarian Information report that nothing has fundamentally changed about that situation since 2010:
*The U.N. official responsible for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that Israel has been too slow to relax its blockade of Gaza, which has devastated the isolated economy and failed to achieve its security goals.
link to abcnews.go.com
*Egypt: International delegations denied access into Gaza: Mubarak’s ruling mindset perpetuated; the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) succumbs to Israeli and Western dictates.
link to anhri.net
It’s obvious that Israel’s blockade and the closure of Gaza are still a form of collective punishment that Israel uses to choke off the local economy and the people from the outside world in order to humiliate the people of Gaza and those who attempt to provide them with humanitarian aid.
*AIPAC and Israel continue to attack US funding for UNRWA refugees in living in Gaza through propaganda and draft legislation;
*The IDF is still violating the unilateral withdrawal agreement and the 2005 agreement on movement and access with regard to the operation of the Gaza port. It does that to prevent deliveries of humanitarian aid and the conduct of normal commerce through imports and exports; to punish the local fishing fleet; and to harm the local economy. It is doing the same things with the land crossings to prevent exports to the West Bank and the rest of the world, and to slow down deliveries of products and humanitarian aid shipments in violation of Security Council resolution 1860 (2009).
The link you sent me to, in case you haven’t noticed, is from January 2007. A bit of water have flowed down the Mississippi since then, you know? The Nile, too. I assure you – from direct knowledge, not from websites – that the Israelis have no control over the decisions the Egyptians make about what crosses their border with Gaza and what doesn’t.
Ah, you want a more recent link? How about March 2012? Or has too much water flowed under that bridge as well? Frankly, if you had a credible more recent link to counter what I said you would have provided it, but instead you are forced into the lame position that a link from 2007 is no longer valid, despite the fact that it shows that Israel, after the “disengagement”, still controlled and controls what goods can enter Gaza. Israel’s July 2010 announced “easing” of restrictions on Gaza, done only as the result of international pressure in the wake of the flotilla massacre, did not change the Agreement on Movement which requires all goods entering Gaza to go through the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
Here’s the March 2012 link:
link to gisha.org
Nothing has changed with respect to the Agreement on Movement and Access since its signing in 2005 with regards to the official restriction on movement of goods through Rafah. That restriction has not been relinquished by Israel and is still in force.
And here’s a more detailed update from November of 2011 which illustrates the continuing Israeli control over Gaza.
link to gisha.org
Further down you cite another Gisha report, from the beginning of 2010. Again, it my have slipped your attention, but in the early summer of 2010 Israel made some major changes to its policy on what could or couldn’t enter (and leave) Gaza through the Israeli border crossings, so that your source is no longer relevant.
Ha! What a joke! You use a NY Times report from January 2009 to support a dubious claim that Israel doesn’t bomb “civilian tunnels” and then have the gall to claim that a May 2010 link to a list of civilian food and other items that Israel prohibited from entering is no longer relevant? January 2009, OK and relevant? May 2010, old and passe? What a stupid statement on your part!
The point I was making was that the only reason that Egyptian potato chips had to go through tunnels into Gaza in the exact time frame your own link discussed them, was because Israel was prohibiting normal, non- offensive, non-Israeli-security threatening foodstuffs and consumer goods. So any flimsy attempt by you to attach some kind of moral superiority on Israel’s part is ludicrous given the draconian Israeli restrictions on Gaza’s economy and its population.
But even if it were, this thread is about the Egyptian border, not the Israeli one, so it’s irrelevant.
Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt stipulated that its border with Egypt was the border between Egypt and Gaza. The Agreement on Movement and Access in 2005 did not change that, Egypt still considers that border as the operative one, and, again, the Agreement restricted the movement of goods into Gaza to the Kerem Shalom Crossing in Israel.
I assure you – from direct knowledge, not from websites – that the Israelis have no control over the decisions the Egyptians make about what crosses their border with Gaza and what doesn’t.
So what are you, a flack from the Israeli Ministry of Truth? An Egyptian fly on the wall? An AIPAC intern with an inflated sense of importance? Curious minds want to know. So you come here to see if you can get any of your hasbara to fly, and if you can’t, you regroup and try, try again?
did not change the Agreement on Movement which requires all goods entering Gaza to go through the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
Reminder: The 2005 AMA allowed Gaza to operate and enlarge its sea port. It also guaranteed there would be no interference with the sea port from the IDF.
Do you really think that those tunnels would be there if isreal wasn’t?? The only reason they exist is because israel is trying to starve the Gazans, treating the place like a ghetto.
Allison,
One of the main themes of this report is that the correspondent is afraid she’ll be hit by an Israeli bomb, while the tunnel operators find her fears humorous. She speculates that perhaps they’ve become innured to the constant danger. Yet an earlier New York Times report offers a different explanation: that the tunnel operators are fully aware that Israel doesn’t attack civilian tunnels, only military ones; this would indicate that the tunnel operators Ms. Izzedien talked to were unafraid, because there’s nothing to be afraid of.
And note: the source for that earlier NYT report were… the tunnel operators themselves.
link to thelede.blogs.nytimes.com
And note: the source for that earlier NYT report were… the tunnel operators themselves.
Actually it was just one man. He only said it “seemed” like Israel knew which tunnels were operated by Hamas and which ones are operated by local businesses.
Well, you know when I think of the IDF boys who shoot unarmed people from armored trucks and sniper children and killed peaceful demonstrators with tear gas canisters …I can’t picture Isr A/F being too careful about
distinguishing civilian tunnels from weapons tunnels….can you?
Yet an earlier New York Times report offers a different explanation: that the tunnel operators are fully aware that Israel doesn’t attack civilian tunnels….
Like how Israel only prohibits military goods into Gaza? Because we are all well aware of how Israel prohibits military sage, cardamom, cumin, coriander, ginger, jam, vinegar, halva, nutmeg, etc. into Gaza.
Here’s the list of prohibited items from May of 2010:
link to gisha.org
If Israel allowed these civilian goods in, there wouldn’t be any need for “civilian tunnels” in the first place. If Israel doesn’t consider these “civilian tunnels” a threat, then it is purely a punitive measure to prohibit the entrance of these goods through the normal crossings.
Chipsy” potato chips from Egypt are another prohibited good, requiring the use of illicit and expensive tunnels to import them into Gaza. Please, Winnica, do wax on about the need to keep potato chips out of Gaza, and then explain why, even with the offensive military nature of fried spuds, Israel should be commended for supposedly not blowing up the terrorist spud tunnels, at least as far as you know.
The NYT reporter writes: “Many Egyptians believe that, after the revolution that toppled the government last year, the Rafah crossing should be opened up for trade and complete freedom of travel, ending an economic siege on Gaza. . . . . Gazans have always considered the tunnels a legitimate trade and passenger route, one that is necessary for survival in light of the blockade.”
These statements obfuscate WHY these tunnels even exist. The reporter makes it sound like Egypt is the source of the economic siege. No mention of WHO is responsible for the blockade on Gaza. Did anyone else find this pernicious or am I reading into things?
No, the framing of the issue presented is key. Meanwhile, I read today that the new Egypt is allowing Palestinian Airlines to operate, which means Gazans will not have to trek to Cairo any longer to board an airplane (whether thru tunnels or otherwise). Why is this not more in the news? Because it reveals the Arab Spring is real, despite its curbs due to Egyptian military dependence on US tax dollars?
Where did you read this Citizen?
The EU and a few other countries funded an international airport in Gaza about a decade ago which Israel promptly bombed to smithereens:
Yasser Arafat International Airport
Checking Palestine Airlines wiki page I see they are operating out of Rafah, rather than Gaza… Still, it’s so nice to see an airliner flying Palestine’s colours:
link to en.wikipedia.org
Egypt is allowing Palestinian Airlines flights between Marka Air Base, Jordan and El Arish, Egypt. link to haaretz.com
So people still have to queue-up and request permission to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing in order to get on a flight.
correction: El Arish, not Rafah!
“The EU and a few other countries funded an international airport in Gaza about a decade ago which Israel promptly bombed to smithereens:”
It would serve them right if the same happened to Ben Gurion.