As the Israel Air Force continues to seek out and destroy arms-smuggling tunnels, a senior IDF figure confirms that it was Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza that enabled the Arabs to dig them in the first place.
“Because of the Disengagement,” a senior security official told correspondent Haggai Huberman on Monday, “the Palestinians were able to increase the number of tunnels, because they were able to dig in areas that the IDF had previously occupied.”
No More Need to Hide in Houses
The officer said that before 2005, when Israel unilaterally retreated from Gaza, the tunnels were dug only in the three-kilometer-long strip along the city of Rafah - because the tunnel openings were able to be camouflaged inside houses. Ever since the IDF left, however, tunnels began to be dug all along the entire 13-14 kilometer Egyptian-Gaza border.
The officer further estimated that the destroyed tunnels will not be able to be rebuilt. However, he said, terrorists still have the ability to dig new ones, and continue to try to smuggle in weapons and explosives via the existing tunnels.
150 Down, 150 to Go
It has been reported that of the some 300 tunnels that were built along the Gaza-Egyptian border, about half have been destroyed during the current Operation Cast Lead – including about 30 on Sunday. The Israel Air Force continues to target additional tunnels.
Israel to Re-Take?
The question for the “day after the war” is what will happen to the Gaza-Egyptian border, known in Israel as the Philadelphi Route, after the current war ends. Many in Israel bemoan Israel’s having handed over control of the area to Egypt shortly after the Disengagement, and would like Israel to retake it. Among these are Likud MK Yuval Shteinitz, who supported the Disengagement itself, and former Southern Command chief Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yom-Tov Samia.
Other Options Include Moat and Fatah's Return to Gaza
Other possibilities being considered include an international force to aid Egypt in controlling arms-smuggling, a request by Egypt to be allowed to increase the size of its 750-man force at the border, and a 25-meter-deep (82 feet) moat along the length of the border on the Egyptian side.
A plan being discussed by Egyptian and French officials involves a large portion of southern Gaza, including the Rafah crossing to Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing to Israel, which would be policed by Turkish and French military monitors. This would be a prelude, according to the planners, to the return of Fatah to all of Gaza. The Fatah regime in Gaza was violently overthrown by Hamas in the summer of 2006.