IDF to use mammoth trencher to expose Gaza tunnels
By the Associated Press
The Israel Defense Forces have found a way to block the tunnels Palestinians dig under the Gaza-Egypt border to smuggle in weapons by using a huge trench-digging machine, according to a military publication.
The 100-ton behemoth would dig deep channels along the border route Israel patrols, exposing the tunnels, the soldiers' weekly "Bamahane" reports in its current edition.
The new trenching machine, made U.S. company Trencor Inc., might provide at least an interim answer to the smuggling problem by neutralizing tunnels now in operation.
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A small picture of the machine in the weekly shows the "Trencor" logo on the side of the yellow vehicle, sporting a snout designed to dip deep into the ground to dig trenches.
The weekly said only that the machine arrived disassembled from Texas and is now being put together. It will be operational "in the coming weeks," it said.
Israel uses specially armored Caterpillar D-9 bulldozers in Gaza operations to clear areas and tear down buildings the military says are used by militants. As a result, Caterpillar has become a target for pro-Palestinian protests. The company insists it has no control over how
its machines are used.
The IDF says that during more than four years of Palestinian-Israeli violence, soldiers have uncovered more than 90 tunnels used by Palestinians to smuggle weapons and other contraband from Egypt. Most of the tunnels were discovered during Israeli military operations in the Rafah refugee camp on the border, often triggering gun battles.
Israel plans to pull out of the Gaza Strip in August, but it has yet to commit officially to withdrawing from the border road, called the "Philadelphi Route."
Officials warn that if arms smuggling through the tunnels is not stopped, Gaza could become an armed terrorist enclave with advanced weapons, threatening Israeli cities and civilian aircraft.
Egypt has said it is prepared to deploy 750 police along the border, and recently Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said Israel would pull out of the border road a few months after its evacuation from Gaza.
Palestinians are demanding full control of the border area.
Laying infrastructure during peace Trencor's head of international sales, Don Sharp, said that Israel paid $1.4 million for one of its top-of-the-line trench diggers. "You'd need 15 to 20 excavators to get the same job done," Sharp said in a phone interview from West Salem, Ohio.
Manufactured in Loudon, Tennessee, the massive yellow vehicle sports a snout designed to cut through concrete or metal to help lay large water, sewer, gas and petrol pipelines, Sharp said.
Sharp added that if Israelis and Palestinians learn to get along, "they could use it to help lay new infrastructure."
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