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| Israel-Palestine |
| Gaza Smuggling Tunnel Collapses, Trapping 5 |
| 2004-12-17 |
| GAZA (Reuters) - A smuggling tunnel being dug by Palestinians on the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed on Friday and at least five people were trapped inside, witnesses in the Gaza frontier town of Rafah said. heh Palestinian ambulances and rescue crews given clearance by Israeli forces rushed to the scene. Palestinian officials said earlier accounts that two men had been extracted from the tunnel were incorrect, citing poor communications in the area. communication nothing. they oughta worry more about their engineering. "We are still digging, we cannot yet determine their fate," a security official said by telephone from Rafah. bet they'd trade those 72 virgins for one of those John Deere's about now -- the same John Deere's that ISM petitioned the company not to send to Israel Militants have dug many tunnels from Egypt into Gaza to slip in arms but other tunnels have been used solely to smuggle contraband like cigarettes. It was unclear whether the tunnel that caved in had been burrowed by militants or traders. leave it to reuters to provide a hint of legitimacy somewhere in their copy. The Israeli army maintains a security strip along Gaza's frontier with Egypt and has carried out numerous bloody raids into adjacent Rafah to root out suspected tunnels. But militants have kept digging them under the noses of troops. . . . and to make Israel out to be the bad guy On Sunday, militants killed five soldiers by detonating 1,500 kg (3,310 pounds) of explosives in a tunnel burrowed under an army post in the corridor, a stretch of desert dunes. It was one of the most sophisticated attacks ever by Palestinian |
| Posted by:PlanetDan |
| #14 A couple of problems with these various proposals, as seen from my semi-nontechnical perspective. 1. If you flood the tunnels with sea water, won't that salinize the soil, much like the Romans salting the fields of their conquered enemies, so that nothing would grow there? There isn't so much fertile growing area in that part of the world that you'd want to screw up what's there. 2. The Israelis have modern plumbing, so no outhouse extracts available for dumping in tunnels. 3. Using canisters of aluminum phosphide or calcium carbide plus water requires knowledge of the location of the tunnels. The problem is that the Israelis don't. 4. Frank, I suspect you are right about the fluidizing soil problem. The only region where the soil has ever been saturated is in the Galilee, which was swamp for about 1000 years -- post-Rome and pre-Jewish swamp-draining settlers in the early part of the 20th century. I guess that leaves Tom's suggestion of randomly pounding the ground in the hope of collapsing the tunnels underneath. Or maybe using the machine archeologists use to see where the best buried cities are. Sorry, guys. I'd be happy if you would tell me where I went wrong in my quick analysis of the solutions offered. I admit I'm just a semi-nontechnical but enthusiastic amateur, and would be happy to be shown the error of my ways by someone who actually knows what he's talking about. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-12-17 9:27:05 PM |
| #13 I say, deal with 'em like you deal with gophers. Shovel in some calcium carbide in the entrances. Add water to taste. Delay action fuse to light it off. Cover entrance of tunnel. End of Paleo gopher problem.***Boomph*** |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-12-17 9:10:20 PM |
| #12 Sorry I'm late with this: |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-12-17 7:48:21 PM |
| #11 phil b - I've worked with those, unfortunately the soils have to be saturated for the vibration to build up loss of cohesion and subsequent liquifaction, otherwise you're just looking for collapsing of shoddy tunnels via vibration, hence my canal comment [/Engineering geo-geek talk] whatever works, I say....Underground tests of the Zionist nukes would do a better job, and scare the bejebus out of any thinking paleo/arab (however small that population may be) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-12-17 5:14:30 PM |
| #10 I'd recommend vibratory pile driving. It nicely fluidizes loose soils. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-12-17 5:04:50 PM |
| #9 Drill a hole,then truck in all the feces from Israels shithouses and dump it on the Paleostonians.Wait,that would actually improvethe smell in the tunnel. |
| Posted by: Me 2004-12-17 4:56:50 PM |
| #8 Hey Cap'n P., are you by any chance related to Bill Murray? |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2004-12-17 3:30:15 PM |
| #7 I guess you could use seawater, but to me the problem seems analagous to the gopher problem I used to have in my back yard. I say "used to have" because a couple of canisters of aluminum phosphide took care of the situation for good. And I don't see why that wouldn't work here, too. |
| Posted by: Captain Pedantic 2004-12-17 12:46:45 PM |
| #6 Sympathy meter ? |
| Posted by: Crikey 2004-12-17 12:42:44 PM |
| #5 As the tunnel collapsed around them, their ferverent prayers for the intercession of St. Rachel Corrie, patron of weapons-smuggling tunnels, went unanswered. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-12-17 11:44:42 AM |
| #4 Not pile drivers, but drilling rigs. Set up a pipeline to deliver sea water, then drill small probe holes and fire up the pumps when a shaft is discovered. Pump in enough water at sufficient pressure, and the tunnel outlets on either side can be found easily. On Sunday, militants killed five soldiers by detonating 1,500 kg (3,310 pounds) of explosives in a tunnel burrowed under an army post in the corridor, a stretch of desert dunes. It was one of the most sophisticated attacks ever by Palestinian militants against an Israeli military post near the volatile Rafah crossing to Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip. Sophisticated, yes, but not worth the effort expended, and not likely to be repeated. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-12-17 11:13:15 AM |
| #3 Israel should periodically bring in piling drivers and randomly pound the heck out of the area. Cheaper than a canal. |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-12-17 10:39:58 AM |
| #2 about time for that seawater diversion canal..... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-12-17 10:34:53 AM |
| #1 The Pali's should've had Becthel build them like up here in Boston. They'd leak, but not collapse. Bit pricey though. Maybe they could cut back on Suha's pig payments to cover it? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-12-17 10:22:36 AM |