- 31 mrt 2011
Hassan Mahmoud Hassan Abu Jasser
Gaza: Hamas operative killed in tunnel collapse
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, announced that a member of the organization was killed when a tunnel collapsed in Rafah. A few Palestinians were killed in similar tunnel incidents over the past few weeks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4050642,00.html 23 jan 2012, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 1 apr 2011
Qassam operative killed in tunnel collapse
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A member of the armed wing of Hamas died Thursday after a tunnel collapsed in the southern Gaza Strip. He was identified as Hasan Abu Jaser from Jabaliya in southern Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=374430 23 jan 2012, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 12 apr 2011
Israel keeps Gaza goods crossing shut despite truce
GAZA (Reuters) Israel kept a commercial crossing with Hamas-ruled Gaza shut for a seventh day Tuesday although a truce had stopped cross-border fighting, and a UN official said he was "extremely worried" essential supplies may run out.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which provides aid to more than two thirds of Gaza's population of 1.5 million, said 172 truckloads of oil, sugar and flour were waiting to cross into the impoverished coastal territory.
Israel said it shut the crossings a week ago during a violent flare-up when Hamas militants fired an anti-tank rocket at a school bus, critically wounding an Israeli teen-ager, and Israel retaliated with air raids, killing 19 Palestinians.
The violence has subsided since Egyptian and UN mediators achieved an informal truce Sunday.
Israel has not yet reopened the terminal because of concern about security, an Israeli official said, adding that individual humanitarian cases were allowed into Israel at a separate crossing.
Christopher Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman, said he was "extremely worried" the commercial crossing at Kerem Shalom might not reopen before the Jewish Passover holiday begins on Monday evening, a time when Israel often shuts its crossings with Palestinian territories, citing security concerns.
The relief agency generally aims to send about 20 truckloads of sugar, flour, oil and school lunches into Gaza daily, and has only enough of these supplies stored in the territory to last until the end of the month, Gunness said.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said 150 types of basic medicines were lacking in the territory and that a cooking gas shortage also loomed.
Israel denied there were shortages of any basic items in Gaza.
Gaza shares a border crossing with Egypt at its southernmost point, Rafah, but commercial goods are brought in only via a monitored Israeli terminal, though smugglers bring in goods through tunnels dug beneath the desert frontier with Egypt.
Four Palestinians from Gaza were killed Tuesday trying to smuggle in cooking gas through such a tunnel that collapsed. It took rescuers several hours to dig out their bodies, the civil emergency services in Gaza said.
http://fwd4.me/zVk 23 jan 2012, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 12 apr 2011
Gaza officials: 4 Palestinians suffocate in tunnel
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip-Gaza officials say four Palestinians have suffocated while trying to repair a smuggling tunnel hit in an Israeli airstrike last week.
There are hundreds of tunnels under the 9-mile (15-kilometer) Gaza-Egypt border, used for smuggling goods and people into Gaza. Israel charges that weapons and ammunition, including rockets that can hit Israeli cities, reach Gaza through the tunnels.
Israel hits tunnels in airstrikes, retaliation for rocket attacks from Gaza. But there have been no airstrikes in the past two days.
Hamas and Gaza health officials said the four Palestinians died Tuesday as they worked underground. In the past three years, about 160 workers have been killed in the tunnels, human rights groups say.
http://fwd4.me/zVE 23 jan 2012, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 23 mei 2011
Man killed, 2nd injured in Rafah tunnel collapse
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A Palestinian man was killed and another sustained injuries Monday morning when a smuggling tunnel collapsed over them in the southern Gaza Strip.
Coordinator of Gaza Strip’s emergency and ambulance service committee Adham Abu Salmiya identified the victim as 32-year-old Muhammad Mustafa An-Najjar.
The medical official said a second man was critically injured in the same tunnel accident under the border between Egypt and Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390180 23 jan 2012, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 6 juni 2011
Worker dies as Rafah smuggling tunnel collapses
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A 22-year-old worker was killed Monday when a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed, medics said.
Sami Ahmad An-Nadi, from Khan Younis, was trapped in the tunnel in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said An-Nadi's body was taken to the Abu Yousif An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.
The spokesman said over 160 workers have been killed in tunnel accidents since February 2006.
Since Israel imposed a siege on the coastal enclave in 2006, smuggling tunnels from Egypt have provided a lifeline to the 1.6 million residents of Gaza.
Israel tightened its blockade in 2007 when Hamas took control of the territory, and Egypt cooperated by restricting movement through Rafah.
On May 28, Egypt reopened the Rafah crossing, Gaza's only border crossing not controlled by Israel.
The opening eased the movement of people in and out of Gaza, but the terminal is not equipped for the transfer of goods, and so its reopening will have little impact on Israel's siege.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=394109 23 jan 2012, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 8 juni 2011
Update: Egyptians seize Gaza car smuggling tunnel
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Egyptian border guards raided a tunnel used to smuggle cars between Gaza and Egypt, Egyptian security sources told Ma'an Wednesday.
The forces located the site south of Salah Ad-Din gate in Rafah, on the Egyptian side of the border with the coastal strip.
Smugglers escaped through the tunnel to Gaza during the raid, the sources said, but the Egyptian guards seized four Hyundai vehicles.
Egyptian security forces had received information that the tunnel was being used to smuggle cars from Libya into Gaza, they said.
The forces said they had tightened the security around the area ahead of destroying the tunnel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=394770 23 jan 2012, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 11 juni 2011
Gaza tunnel worker dies from electric shock
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian died Saturday from an electric shock while working in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border, medics said.
Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya identified the victim as Mahmoud Abed, 23.
Medics say over 160 Palestinians have died in the network of underground tunnels since Israel imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip in 2006.
Smuggling tunnels from Egypt have provided a lifeline to the 1.6 million residents of Gaza, particularly since Israel tightened its blockade in 2007 when Hamas took control of the territory.
On May 28, Egypt ended its cooperation with the siege by reopening the Rafah crossing, Gaza's only border crossing not controlled by Israel.
The opening eased the movement of people in and out of Gaza, but the terminal is not equipped for the transfer of goods, and so its reopening has had little impact on Israel's siege.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=395797 23 jan 2012, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 16 juni 2011
Muhammad Al-Mahmoum, 20
Al-Qassam member dies from electric shock
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The militant wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, issued a statement Thursday saying one of its fighters had died in hospital after sustaining a life-threatening electric shock two days earlier.
The group identified the man as Muhammad Al-Mahmoum, 20. He sustained an electric shock while he was working with the brigades in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
In a statement, the brigades said "Al-Mahmoum dedicated his life to jihad."
Tunnel workers often suffer electric shocks from faulty wiring in the underground passages leading between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397171 23 jan 2012, 20:27 , Respect -
Maria 20 juni 2011
Gaza in crisis as smugglers divert trade to Libya
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Egyptian fuel smugglers are expanding their network to Libya and reducing deliveries to Gaza causing a fuel crisis in the Strip, traders told Ma'an.
Gaza trader Ayman Abu Shanab said Egypt was exploiting the unrest in Libya to smuggle fuel into the country for high prices. Libya has huge reserves of oil but due to the fighting in the country traders were smuggling fuel to the Libyan coast on fishing boats.
Abu Shanab said a liter of petrol in Gaza sold for less than one shekel ($0.29) but in Libya, Egypt could sell fuel for $1 per liter.
Egyptian smugglers preferred to trade with Libya, leading to a shortages in the Gaza Strip, specialists in the coastal enclave said.
Gaza needs 200,000 liters of petrol daily but over the last week only 50,000 liters of fuel was smuggled into the Strip each day, Abu Shanab said.
He said the gas smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under the Egyptian border was low quality, and that Egyptian smugglers had diluted the fuel.
Gaza gas station owners rejected the fuel, which was sometimes black, red or brown, he added.
Vice-chairman of the assembly of oil and gas companies Mahmoud Al-Khazandar urged the Hamas government to establish a laboratory to test the quality of oil imported to Gaza.
"The quantities of fuel which entered Gaza in the past few days are limited, and the petrol doesn’t match our fuel standard so we rejected some shipments," he added.
Al-Khazandar called on the new Egyptian government to officially export gas to Gaza. At present, residents of Gaza relied on fuel smuggled from Egypt because Israeli gas was too expensive, costing around seven shekels ($2) a liter, he explained.
Since Israel tightened its siege on the Gaza Strip in 2006, Palestinians have relied on goods smuggled from Egypt through underground tunnels.
The tunnels provide a life-line to residents of the coastal enclave, but they are known locally as "death-traps" due to the frequency of fatal tunnel accidents.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398259 23 jan 2012, 20:27 , Respect -
Maria 5 juli 2011
Getting rich off the siege against Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLHzL3mRP7g
It's been five years since Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza - a siege that was aimed at weakening Hamas, which controls the Strip.
But an underground world of smuggling tunnels, and the subsequent taxes imposed by Hamas, has actually helped strengthen the group.
While Israel's blockade has generally hurt the economy in Gaza, the tunnels have made their owners and Hamas a lot of money. 23 jan 2012, 20:27 , Respect -
Maria 11 juli 2011
The Palestine Entries: Into the tunnels we go
There are an estimated 1,200 tunnels running underneath the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The tunnels are mainly used for importing goods into Gaza that are otherwise prevented from entering through Israeli checkpoints and land crossings. These goods include most candies and colas, cars, sheep, and clothes, and every once in a while, an Egyptian bride.
These tunnels always fascinated me, mostly because of their controversial nature but also because of the sheer ingenuity that lies behind the construction of every individual tunnel. I never realized how complex these structures are until I saw them with my own eyes.
There are two kinds of tunnels. The first features a gradual slope deep into the ground and eventually surfaces in Egypt’s North Sinai governate. According to one of the tunnel operators, the entire trip lasts between three to ten minutes. These ramp tunnels vary in size, height, depth, and width but are usually very short and are used to import fish and other small products. Motors pull large plastic containers back and forth through the tunnel.
The second type of tunnel looks more like a conventional well and, at face value, appears much more elaborate. After dropping more than 25 meters into the ground, the tunnel digs its way under the border and up another well.
I was lucky enough to enter both kinds of tunnels. The ramp tunnel was used exclusively to smuggle fish and sheep into Gaza. It was hit five separate times by Israeli air strikes, compelling the tunnel owner to reinforce the interior of the tunnel with thick metal sheets and wooden planks. Eco-friendly lightbulbs illuminated the entire tunnel which, at maximum, was only four feet in height.
The second tunnel, the well tunnel, featured a deep drop into the cool Earth surface, lightbulbs, and a radio in the form of a plastic telephone to maintain contact between those on the ground and those within. I had a brief conversation with my mother who was worried about my wellbeing even though she was standing just meters above me.
It is worth mentioning that the presence of these tunnels does not negate the fact that the Gaza Strip is still under siege. The remaining three borders, including all sea and airspace, are controlled in full by the Israeli armed forces and although the border with Egypt is run by Egyptian and Hamas guards, it is ultimately regulated by the Israeli military which tracks the movement of all Gazans and foreigners traveling to and from the territory. Israeli checkpoints remain closed to Palestinians unless for emergency medical situations and goods, humanitarian aid, and construction material are still prohibited from passing into the Strip.
Although the tunnels do supply Gaza with certain goods, foods, and cars, they do not assuage Palestinian frustration with the strangling siege nor do they provide enough to sustain the growing infrastructure of the territory.
Nevertheless, the tunnel system continues to grow even though the Israeli military regularly targets the tunnels with air strikes.
Videos to come soon.
http://fwd4.me/06Kd 23 jan 2012, 20:27 , Respect -
Maria 16 juli 2011
Palestinian electrocuted in Gaza tunnel
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A Palestinian worked died Saturday inside a tunnel along the border between Egypt and Gaza, medical officials said.
Nedal Yousef Tahrawim, 26, from Ash-Shabura refugee camp in Rafah, sustained an electric shock inside a tunnel, medics said.
Tahrawim's body was transferred to a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip city, the medical officials said.
Egyptian border guards, meanwhile, thwarted an attempt to smuggle more than 20 tons of cement into Gaza via tunnels along the border, security sources told Ma'an.
Palestinian and Egyptian smugglers were involved in the effort to bring large amounts of building materials into the besieged enclave, they added. The smugglers fled the scene.
Forces raided the area and seized 430 bags of cement, the security officials said. The cement will be sold at auction and the tunnel will be blocked by stones, they added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=405777
Palestinian worker electrocuted in tunnel
GAZA, (PIC)-- A Palestinian worker was electrocuted to death in one of the tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border on Saturday night, medical sources reported.
Adham Abu Salmiya, the spokesman for medical services, told the PIC reporter that Nidal Tahrawi, 25, from Rafah was instantly killed in the incident.
More than 160 Palestinian citizens were killed while working in the tunnels, used to supply the besieged Gaza Strip with badly needed food, fuel, and other materials, since 2006.
http://fwd4.me/06pW 23 jan 2012, 20:27 , Respect -
Maria 17 juli 2011
Egyptians Help to Rebuild Gaza
With thousands of construction workers being asked to return to work, Gaza has found itself in the middle of a building boom.
The Contractors Association says more than 14,000 new construction jobs have been created this year.
The Israeli siege on the strip over the past four years had brought construction to a standstill.
But since the Egyptian revolution, supplies have been easier to come by.
However, people say rather than hauling construction material through the tunnels, Israel should end its siege and allow trucks to bring the material over the border. 23 jan 2012, 20:27 , Respect -
Maria 21 juli 2011
Egyptian authorities thwart smugglers at tunnel
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Egyptian authorities thwarted an attempt on Thursday to smuggle building materials into Gaza via a tunnel south of the Al-Barahmeh neighborhood in Rafah.
“Egyptian security departments in Rafah had received information on a group of Egyptian and Palestinian smugglers trying to transport large amounts of cement and metal into Gaza via a tunnel in Al-Barahmeh neighborhood on the border,” Egyptian security officials told Ma'an.
Security officials raided the area and confiscated large amounts of cement as the smugglers fled the scene, a Ma'an correspondent said.
Egyptian authorities loaded the materials onto trucks to be sold later in an auction.
Egyptian security has been tightened and the entrance to the tunnel is to be destroyed on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=407314