Disengagement helped lead to smuggling tunnels
Published by Avi Green on Monday, January 12, 2009 at 11:12 AM.
Here's what Ariel Sharon's act of cowardice led to:
(IsraelNN.com) 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.Charles Krauthammer would do well to consider this next time before he goes the bizarre knee-jerk route and condones retreatism.
“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.
Labels: Israel, jihad, terrorism, war on terror
