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Un nouveau mur de la double honte: “le mur de Judas et de l’Oncle Sam” (ndlr)
Egypt starts building steel wall on Gaza Strip border
Jeudi, 10 décembre 2009 - 17h32
Thursday 10 December 2009
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Egypt starts building steel wall on Gaza Strip border
By Christian Fraser
BBC News, Cairo
There are thought to be hundreds of tunnels along the border
Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with
the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels, the BBC has
learned.
When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will
extend 18 metres below the surface.
The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers, who the BBC
understands have designed the wall.
The plan has been shrouded in secrecy, with no comment or confirmation
from the Egyptian government.
The wall will take 18 months to complete.
For weeks local farmers have noticed more activity at the border where
trees were being cut down, but very few of them were aware that a
barrier was being built.
’Impenetrable’
That is because the barrier, made of super-strength steel, has been
hidden deep underground.
The BBC has been told that it was manufactured in the US, that it fits
together in similar fashion to a jigsaw, and that it has been tested
to ensure it is bomb proof.
It cannot be cut or melted - in short it is impenetrable.
Intelligence sources in Egypt say the barrier is being sunk close to
the perimeter wall that already exists.
They claim 4km of the wall has already been completed north of the
Rafah crossing, with work now beginning to the south.
The land beneath Egypt and Gaza resembles a Swiss cheese, full of
holes and tunnels through which the Palestinians smuggle the everyday
items they are denied by the blockade.
But the Israelis say the tunnels are also used to smuggle people,
weapons, and the components of the rockets that are fired at southern
Israeli towns.
The wall is not expected to stop all the smuggling, but it will force
the Palestinians to go deeper and it will likely cut the hundreds of
superficial tunnels closer to the surface that are used to move the
bulk of the goods.
