A SENIOR Egyptian engineer working on the ‘steel wall’ which the Egyptian authorities are building along the borders with the Gaza Strip, has confirmed that there is comprehensive US supervision of its construction by engineers who are said to be working in the US Army.
He added that the construction of the wall took a long time to prepare – over six months.
The actual construction process started around three months ago amid very strict security measures.
The engineer, who refused to reveal his name, said in an exclusive statement to the Palestinian Information Centre on 29 December that ‘at the beginning, a meeting was held with a number of security figures and engineers from the government, in addition to a number of US engineers who had been supervising the operations of digging into the tunnels since last year.
‘They told us that the soil along the Egyptian borders has been affected by the increase in the number of tunnels.
‘For this reason, we must start building the wall to limit the operations of the tunnels through underground steel walls.’
The engineer revealed that so far, over 5km has been built along the borders on the Salah al-Din axis, and the length of the axis is 10km. The steel walls have been placed in the ground to about half the axis.
He pointed out that the wall is being embedded in the ground at a depth of 20-30 metres and that it consists of solid sheets of steel; the height of each is 18 metres, and the thickness is 50cm. It is also supplied with sensors that alert to any attempts at infiltrating it.
Regarding the subject of fitting water pipes for the sea water underground, he said: ‘This is true. There is a huge main pipe that extends from the sea in the west at a length of 10km east. From this pipe, other side pipes with holes in them branch off under the ground in the direction of the Palestinian side.
‘The one pipe is separated from the other by 30 or 40 metres, and water is pumped into the major pipe from the sea directly and then to the branch pipes underground.
‘And since these pipes have holes in them towards the Palestinian side, they are designed to cause cracks in the earth and make it collapse affecting the work of the tunnels all along the borders.’
He also pointed out that pumping the water for a long time could cause cumulative problems, such as affecting large areas of the city of Rafah and the foundations of buildings, particularly in the areas along the border region.
And he stressed the danger of leakage of the sea water from underground, because salt water has a huge effect on the soil and the foundations of buildings.
He said that if any leakage happens from the sea water into the ground, it will lead to the collapse of the soil in large areas along the borders, seeing that hundreds of tunnels were dug in that region.
However, Egyptian soil will not be affected because it is protected by the wall implanted in the ground.
The engineer also confirmed that the majority of those working on the wall project are convinced that they are performing a national act to protect the Egyptian territories, because they have beentold that the tunnels which are used to transport and import goods into Gaza are also being used to infiltrate ‘terrorist’ cells from Gaza into Egypt.
He also said that digging and construction operations continue on the wall and have not stopped at any point in time, in fact, they continue today and ‘no one is paying any heed to what the media are saying’.
Construction of the wall is a sovereign political decision that is not being disputed whatsoever.
Meanwhile, the first anniversary of the defeat of the December 27th 2009 Israeli attack on Gaza has been celebrated in the Gaza Strip.
A Hamas statement said: ‘The sons of our people in the Gaza Strip marked the first anniversary of the Al-Furqan war, which claimed the lives of 1,500 martyrs apart from destroying around 20,000 houses.
‘The Ministry of Culture, in cooperation with the ministries and various institutions, announced the start of the commemoration, which will continue throughout the next 22 days, the days of the war on Gaza.
‘Sirens sounded in all parts of the Gaza Strip at 11.20 last Sunday morning, the time the aggression started a year ago.
‘This marked the beginning of the activities to immortalise the souls of the martyrs who fell during the war.
‘It also coincided with a halt to the traffic on the streets of the Gaza Strip and workers everywhere stopped their work in various institutions and ministries for two minutes of silence for the souls of the martyrs of the oppressive aggression.
‘At noon, a large plaque containing a list of the names of the martyrs of the war was unveiled in an official ceremony attended by a large number of official figures, foremost among them were Dr Ahmad Bahr, first deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council; Deputy Prime Minister Ziyad al-Zaza, and Culture Minister Usamah al-Isawi.
‘Bahr affirmed in a speech during the ceremony that the people’s support for and embrace of the resistance and its leadership thwarted the plans put in place by those who organised and implemented the Zionist war on Gaza.
‘He called on all the sons of our people in the homeland and the diaspora to make the commemoration of the war an occasion for unity and rallying round the option of the resistance, after the failure of negotiations.
‘He added: “All the conspiracies and schemes that target eliminating the resistance and submitting the Palestinian people to international conditions and the requirements of the reality on the ground are destined to fail”.
‘Bahr broached the issue of the construction of a steel wall, affirming that it is the last spear in the brotherhood of the regional and international order, whose objective is to make Gaza kneel and prevent it from resistance.
‘Addressing the Egyptian regime, Bahr said: “Hamas does not constitute a danger to Egyptian national security. It is a protector of it and of the Arab and Islamic nation’s security.”
‘He clarified that the Zionist entity is the real danger to the security of Egypt and everyone else.
‘He called on the Egyptian president to issue orders to stop the construction of the steel wall, which is being built along the border with the Gaza Strip.
‘Bahr called on the United Nations and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, as well as all humanitarian organisations, to take a stand to end the tragedy of the siege on the Gaza Strip, which violates all international charters and norms, and to open the Rafah Crossing, as well as to stop any non-humanitarian measures.’
Meanwhile, a procession was organised at the Unknown Soldier Square in Gaza to immortalise the memory of the war martyrs from among ambulance workers and medical teams.
The procession marched through all the streets of Gaza. Mu’awiyah Hasanayn, director general of the emergency and ambulances section of the Health Ministry, said that 16 ambulance workers were martyred during the war, while 58 others were injured and 17 ambulances were destroyed, in addition to 31 vehicles that were partially destroyed.
He asked the medical institutions supporting the Palestinian people to provide medical aid and lift the siege on Gaza.
In the meantime, the Salah al-Din preparatory school for boys inaugurated an exhibition of pictures on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Gaza war, in the presence of the deputy education minister in eastern Gaza and family members of the students.
Rajab al-Janjuri, the school’s principal, affirmed that the objective of the exhibition is to show the world that the Palestinian people are still steadfast in spite of all that has happened to them and to immortalise the memory of the martyrs and the ugly Israeli crimes.
In its turn, the mercy society for orphans, in cooperation with a number of schools, organised a march for children to commemorate the first anniversary of the Gaza war. The march included hundreds of children carrying slogans that said: ‘We want to live like the rest of the children of the world.’ They asked the Arab peoples to stand alongside the Palestinian people.
A child Marah Ubayd, who was carrying a Palestinian flag, said that she was participating in the march to mark the anniversary of the Gaza war and despite the destruction and war in Gaza, they will remain steadfast.
Another child Ranad Hasanah, added that she was marching to show solidarity with the children who were martyred in the war and the objective is to expose the occupation’s crimes against Gaza and expose the extent of its ugliness in killing children.
The children’s march started from the municipal park, on foot, until it reached the Unknown Soldier’s Square in Gaza.
Wa’il Faraj, deputy director of the mercy society, pointed out that these children want to make their voices heard by the world that has remained silent over the oppression of children. He clarified that they wanted to tell the world that they have emerged from under the rubble despite the pain and wounds and despite the fact that they are among the sectors of society that have suffered the most.
Furthermore, the scouts’ group of Al-Izzah al-Islamiyah in Dayr al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip organised a march through the streets of the city on the first anniversary of the war on Gaza. The march started from the Al-Salam Mosque after evening prayers.
