Can Gaza Be Rebuilt Through Tunnels?

How do you rebuild 5,000 homes,
businesses and government buildings when the only way supplies come
into the prison called Gaza is through tunnels. Will the steel
I-beams for roofs bend 90 degrees to go through the tunnels from Egypt?
Will the tons of cement, lumber, roofing materials, nails, dry wall
and paint be hauled by hand, load after load, 70 feet underground, through
a tunnel 500 to 900 feet long and then pulled up a 70 foot hole and
put into waiting truck in Gaza?

The gates to Gaza slammed shut
again on Thursday, February 5, the day our three person group departed
Gaza, having been allowed in for only 48 hours. The Egyptian government
closed the border crossing into Gaza continuing the sixteen month international
blockade and siege. The crossing had been briefly open to allow
medical and humanitarian supplies into Gaza following the devastating
22 day attack by the Israeli military. The attacks killed 1330
Palestinians and injured over 5,500. The Israeli government said
the attacks were to punish Hamas and other groups for firing unguided
rockets into Israeli, rockets that over the past two years have killed
about 25 Israelis. Most international observers have called the
Israeli response to the rocket attacks disproportionate and collective
punishment, elements of war crimes.

Today, seventeen days after
the gates swung closed on Gaza, they remain firmly locked. Ceasefire
talks in Cairo between the Israeli government and Hamas are stalled.
Opening the border with Egypt is a contentious point in the ceasefire
negotiations.

For the people of Gaza, rebuilding
their homes, businesses, factories is on hold. Over 5,000 homes
and apartment buildings were destroyed and hundreds of government buildings,
including the Parliament building, were smashed. Building supplies,
cement, wood, nails, glass will have to be brought in from outside Gaza.
Two cement factories in northern Gaza were completely destroyed by Israeli
bombs. Prime Minister Olmert's spokesperson Mark Regev said
reconstruction supplies like steel and cement can be used by Hamas to
build more bunkers and rockets. https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090218/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_5

Dissension in the Palestinian
ranks between Fatah and Hamas continues, even after the brutal Israeli
attack on Gaza. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad wants
aid (perhaps as high as $2 billion) for rebuilding Gaza to be sent directly
to each homeowner in Gaza, allowing donors to avoid the elected Hamas
government. The U.S., Israeli and other countries have designated
Hamas as a terrorist organization, and do not want international aid
in Gaza administered by Hamas, even though the people of Gaza elected
the Hamas government. On March 2, an international donor conference
will be held in Egypt to discuss the costs of rebuilding Gaza. (https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_rebuilding_gaza_2)

Who Profits from War and Occupation?

Building supplies will have
to be brought from outside Gaza. Israel controls 90 percent of
the land borders to Gaza-the northern and eastern borders and 100
percent of the ocean on the west side of Gaza. Egypt controls
the southern border with Gaza.

The Israelis who bombed Gaza
will be the primary financial beneficiaries of the rebuilding of Gaza.
They bombed it and now will sell construction materials to rebuild what
they have bombed, exactly like the United States has done in Iraq.
Egyptians too will benefit financially from the reconstruction-high
priced small construction materials that will fit into the tunnels are
no doubt have been transiting through the tunnels for the past 6 weeks.
Israeli women had created a website detailing who profits from occupation
(https://www.whoprofits.org/)

No doubt a second website
is under construction that will track which Israeli, Egyptian and American
companies will benefit from the bombing of Gaza

Prisoner Exchanges as a Part
of the Ceasefire

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert and his security cabinet said this week that no border crossings
will be open until the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit is returned to
Israel. Schalit was captured by Hamas in 2006 in an Israeli cross
border raid into Gaza. Hamas has demanded the release of up to 1,400
Palestinian soldiers in exchange for Shalit

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum
said Hamas "had no objection" to Shalit's release if Israel
would release 1,400 of 11,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel,
including Parliamentarians elected in Gaza in 2006. In the past, Israel
has agreed to exchanges of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners for
a few captured troops or their bodies. But Israeli and Palestinian
officials had not agreed where the released prisoners would be sent
after the swap. Israeli wants the prisoners expelled out of the country
and Hamas wants them returned to their homes in Gaza or the West Bank.
(https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090218/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_5)

"Open the Borders" International
Delegation to Gaza

On March 5, I will be part
of a 30-member international delegation that will travel to the Gaza
border with Egypt in solidarity with the women of Gaza for International
Women's Day. Israeli women will be at the Israeli border crossing
into Gaza. Groups all over the world will join in with pressure
on the Israeli, Egyptian and American governments to open the border
to Gaza and let the people of Gaza rebuild their lives. For more
information about the international delegation, see https://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=4675