[ 21/10/2010 - 09:00 AM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- A giant crane in Egypt near the Salahuddin Gate on the Gaza-Egypt border is steadily embedding giant steel plates into the earth, even though Palestinians can penetrate the plates. But authorities have a hidden agenda behind the massive sheets.
The Egyptian steel wall project funded by the U.S. has neared its end as five centimeter thick, 20 meter deep, and 11 km long steel plates split the Egyptian city of Rafah from its sister city in Palestine.
Rafah mayor Issa Al Nashar said Egyptian authorities have been working night and day since early October to plant the steel plates under the Salahuddin area, the only region where the steel wall has not yet been erected.
Nashar told Quds Press: “When Egypt began building the steel wall, the border was divided into three stages, and it is now in the last stage, and we believe they will finish at the end of the year at the latest.”
Expressing concern over another stage to come after the wall is posted, the mayor said: “If they carry out the project to pump Mediterranean Sea water under ground on the border, it will have disastrous effects not only on the tunnels, but on the underground water and life in the Gaza Strip in general.”
As the last stage of the wall approaches, Palestinian experts fear Egyptian authorities will pump water from the Mediterranean through horizontal plastic pipes which will transport the water to perforated metal pipes stretching more than ten meters into the earth, where the water will be irrigated to loosened soil, and tens or possibly hundreds of tunnels will collapse.
The pipes have been embedded in parallel with the steel wall which will acts as a buffer to prevent the salt water from leaking into the Egyptian side of the border, according to one Palestinian security official and several tunnel owners.
A Palestinian official, preferring anonymity, told Quds Press: “ The danger is not in the wall’s construction, but in the stages that follow that.”
“The project to pump the Mediterranean Sea water is more serious, because it will cause destruction to most of the tunnels,” he added.
The official went on to say that Egyptian authorities are expected to kick off the water pumping project early next year.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
The Egyptian steel wall project funded by the U.S. has neared its end as five centimeter thick, 20 meter deep, and 11 km long steel plates split the Egyptian city of Rafah from its sister city in Palestine.
Rafah mayor Issa Al Nashar said Egyptian authorities have been working night and day since early October to plant the steel plates under the Salahuddin area, the only region where the steel wall has not yet been erected.
Nashar told Quds Press: “When Egypt began building the steel wall, the border was divided into three stages, and it is now in the last stage, and we believe they will finish at the end of the year at the latest.”
Expressing concern over another stage to come after the wall is posted, the mayor said: “If they carry out the project to pump Mediterranean Sea water under ground on the border, it will have disastrous effects not only on the tunnels, but on the underground water and life in the Gaza Strip in general.”
As the last stage of the wall approaches, Palestinian experts fear Egyptian authorities will pump water from the Mediterranean through horizontal plastic pipes which will transport the water to perforated metal pipes stretching more than ten meters into the earth, where the water will be irrigated to loosened soil, and tens or possibly hundreds of tunnels will collapse.
The pipes have been embedded in parallel with the steel wall which will acts as a buffer to prevent the salt water from leaking into the Egyptian side of the border, according to one Palestinian security official and several tunnel owners.
A Palestinian official, preferring anonymity, told Quds Press: “ The danger is not in the wall’s construction, but in the stages that follow that.”
“The project to pump the Mediterranean Sea water is more serious, because it will cause destruction to most of the tunnels,” he added.
The official went on to say that Egyptian authorities are expected to kick off the water pumping project early next year.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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