Word: gaza
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With the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas militants on the verge of collapse, the most dangerous job in Gaza - digging tunnels into Egypt - just got a lot more dangerous. Destroying the tunnels that allowed the import of both vital food and fuel supplies denied Gazans by the Israeli blockade - but that also enabled the ferrying of weapons to Hamas - was a key objective of Israel's 22-day military operation, and its aircraft and artillery pounded the sandy patch of land along the Egyptian border in the hope of collapsing them. But as soon as the truce was declared...
...Negotiations in Cairo over terms for extending the current truce have reached an impasse: Israel is offering an 18-month cease-fire that would involve only a partial opening of the sealed border crossings into Gaza from Egypt and Israel, while Hamas is demanding a complete reopening of the crossings as part of a one-year truce. And that stalemate could bring more trouble for the tunnelers. Egyptian authorities evacuated the Rafah border crossing on Sunday, acting on reports of a possible Israeli air strike on tunnelers. And as Israeli planes streaked across the sky, the diggers scrambled away from...
...Israel has vowed to finish the job of sealing the tunnels to prevent Hamas from acquiring longer-range missiles - and has sought international cooperation to close the arms pipeline - but achieving that won't be easy. Israel's blockade has left Gaza's 1.5 million residents relying on the tunnels as their economic lifeline. Everything from medicine to cement to chocolate bars to lion cubs for the zoo has entered Gaza through hundreds of deep, sandy holes. Says Aymad, a tunnel digger who wears a Palestinian kaffiyeh wrapped around his head: "The Israelis destroyed dozens of tunnels, but many more...
...international inquiry into Israel's wartime behavior might be more palatable to Israelis if it also probed alleged violations of the Geneva Convention by Hamas. Before and during the conflict, Hamas had fired shot rockets into Israeli towns; inside Gaza, according to the Israeli army, the militants had used civilians as "human shields," and had stored weapons in schools, hospitals and mosques - all illegal under Geneva...
...regardless of whether any legal action follows, the probes add to the pall of bitterness hanging over an operation whose ambiguous outcome has left many Israelis questioning just what was achieved by their war in Gaza...