Egypt's Gaza wall months from completion - Israel

Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:30pm GMT

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* Military officer upbeat on wall stopping Gaza smuggling

* Newspaper says wall would flood Palestinian tunnels

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM, Dec 30 (Reuters) - An underground wall that Egypt is building along its border with the Gaza Strip will significantly stem Palestinian arms smuggling when is completed, an Israeli military officer said on Wednesday.

It may be months before it is finished, however, the officer said.

Cairo has played down the scope of the dig on the 14-km (8-mile)-long frontier but Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers condemn it as a "wall of death" that could seal an Israeli-led blockade by smothering smuggler tunnels from the Egyptian Sinai.

"The wall definitely has the potential to make things difficult, though it (smuggling) won't stop hermetically," an Israeli military officer briefed on Gaza intelligence said.

"There has certainly been an effect already. It's driving Hamas crazy." Continued...

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