(BBC News) Jon Donnison - Mohammed, a Gazan tunnel digger, says the new underground Egyptian barrier aimed at stopping smuggling is a "joke." "We just cut through it using high-powered oxygen-fueled blow torches." The Egyptian government began constructing the barrier along the Gaza-Egypt border last year at a cost of millions of dollars. "We pay around a $1,000 for a man with an oxygen-fueled cutter to come and break through it. It takes up to three weeks to cut through, but we get there in the end," he says of the 5-10 cm. thick steel barrier. The BBC spoke to one man in Gaza employed to cut through the barrier who said he could cut a meter-square hole through it in less than a day.
2010-05-07 08:14:23Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive