Friday, August 08, 2014

Why the Gazans made tunnels in Gaza


Nasir Khan, August 8, 2014

A commentator has asked me in reply to one of my articles: What were the tunnels [in Gaza] used for?

Israel as a colonial occupier had encapsulated and isolated Gaza as an open air prison for the last eight years. For Gazans to have any contact with the outside world was to dig tunnels in their own territory to gain access to some essential things from outside. They used the tunnels leading to the Egyptian territory to buy and bring back some livestock, such as goats, medicines and food stuff in a terribly difficult way. The Gazans had no other alternative.

The joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza has made things extremely difficult for them. Again, they made tunnels in their own territory towards Israel as a defensive measure against any Israeli ground offensive on Gaza. For them these proved useful in fighting back the IDF in July but with little resources they were not able to stop the Israeli advance and the destruction in Gaza.

Of course, Israelis did not want any such obstacles in their way against their war on Gaza. Therefore they destroyed these tunnels. Again, these tunnels were on the Gazan territory and Israel had no right to destroy them or the infrastructure, buildings, places of public utility, mosques, homes, etc. within Gaza.

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