GAZA, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli proposal to dig a moat along the Gaza-Egypt border to stop weapons reaching Palestinian militants through tunnels drew Palestinian outrage and defiance today.
"We tried an underground wall, but they dug deeper. We demolished several rows of houses so they dug longer tunnels. ... We've got to have something that would make tunnels impossible," a senior Israeli military source said.
The costly plan, which would run millions of dollars, is the latest of options being floated by the Israeli military as a way to reduce weapons smuggling into the southern Gaza Strip after 13 soldiers were killed in three deadly ambushes last week.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Ghassan al-Khatib said such a project would lead to more homes being demolished in Rafah refugee camp, where hundreds of people have fled their houses after an Israeli threat to raze hundreds of structures.
Israel says buildings in the camp provide cover for gunmen who routinely attack a heavily fortified Israeli military outpost and patrols in the adjoining Philadelphi corridor that separates Gaza from Egypt.
Khatib urged Washington and the United Nations to block any moat-building, a project he said would only "deepen the occupation and certainly lead to an escalation in the conflict."
A water-filled moat would be in addition to an 26-foot-high iron wall blocking Rafah from the frontier buffer zone and a vast barrier in the West Bank condemned by Palestinians as a new "Berlin Wall" and described by Israel as a means to stop suicide bombers.
Palestinian militants vowed to respond by stepping up attacks against Israel.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...orld/2574790?1
It's an idea but I think they will still find ways to get weapons in.
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