U.S. Troops Deployed To Guard Gaza-Egypt Border Crossing, Destroy Smugglers' Tunnels

Several weeks ago Israel asked the United States military to deploy troops to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, supposedly to combat "weapons smuggling," and they complied. At the same time, the Strip had been sealed off by Israel preventing fuel, food aid and medical supplies from reaching a dying and desperate population. It is widely known that the tunnels under Rafah, which our boys have been sent in to blow up, have become the sole lifeline for food and medicine to reach Gaza. Now, the border crossing at Rafah may be the only route of escape for Gazans fleeing Israel's latest extermination efforts. Have our troops actually been sent in to guard the giant concentration camp that is the Gaza Strip?


[By Roee Nahmias, Ynet News | Wednesday, 7 January, 2009.]
U.S. Engineering Corps officers have arrived in southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah to monitor the Egypt-Gaza border and unearth underground tunnels in the area, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reported Wednesday. According to the report, the U.S. Military deployed troops to the area several weeks ago, at Israel's request, in light of its statements that Egypt is doing nothing to curb weapons smuggling into Gaza through the Rafah border.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, added al-Quds al-Arabi, has protested the breached border in conversations with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and has also presented him with images taken at the border, showing Egyptian officers assisting smugglers. Operation Cast Lead has seen IAF forces pummel dozens of tunnels along the Philadelphi Route. (Link.)


[Press TV | Monday, 5 January, 2009.]
U.S. troops are helping Egypt prevent "arms smuggling" from tunnels in the Rafah border-crossing, as Israel continues its attacks on Gaza. NBC anchorwoman and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell said Sunday that U.S. military officers from the Corps of Engineers had been stationed on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in order to prevent "arms smuggling from illegal tunnels" by Palestinian fighters. “And there are U.S. Army Corps of Engineer personnel on the ground right now on the Egypt side looking at the tunnels to see how Egypt could be reassured that there won't be continued smuggling through on that," she said on Meet the Press.

The U.S. and Israel say the tunnels are used for smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes have bombing the Rafah border to destroy the tunnels. Tunnels between the two sides of the Rafah border crossing have been almost the only way for Gazans to obtain food and medicine after Israel besieged the costal strip in mid-2007, after Hamas took control of the region.

Meanwhile, Israel pushes forward with its offensive on the Gaza Strip. At least 551 Palestinians have lost their lives, and some 2,790 others are reported wounded - most of whom are civilians. (Full story here.)