UN warns Gaza tunnels must stay

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said that Gaza’s 1.5 million residents would have difficulty surviving if Egypt succeeds in blocking them because they are a conduit for badly-needed food, medicine and commercial goods. Mr Holmes, who visited the region for four days earlier this month, repeated calls for Israel to end its blockade of the Palestinian territory. “If those tunnels were blocked, however undesirable they may be, the situation without the tunnels would be completely unsustainable,” he said. The Israeli government has repeatedly tried to shut the tunnels down, asserting that they are used to smuggle cash and weapons to the Hamas administration. Egypt has a fence along Gaza’s southern border and is reinforcing the area with underground metal plates to try to block the tunnels. Mr Holmes said that it was “very frustrating” to see that the blockade had prevented reconstruction in Gaza since Israel’s devastating three-week assault that ended in January 2009. “What people in Gaza want to see is the opening of the crossings — not only for goods but for people because they are living in a large open-air prison,” he observed. Israel has said that it will only consider lifting the blockade if Hamas releases Israeli Sergeant Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian guerillas in 2006. Mr Holmes said: “The link between that and the fate of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza does not seem to us a reasonable one.”