Israeli army cracks down on smuggling tunnels under Gaza-Egypt border

JERUSALEM, Oct 10 (AFP) - Israeli troops launched a massive operation to thwart weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip, the army said Friday in a statement which described how Palestinians have been digging tunnels under the border with Egypt to run arms.

Five Palestinians were killed and at least 36 wounded when Israeli troops backed by helicopters raided a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah overnight.

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Military sources said the raid was code-named "operation root canal" and added the army's elite units met with fierce resistance.

In a statement issued on Friday, the army said it feared Palestinian militant organisations were attempting to smuggle more advanced weapons such as anti-tank and portable anti-aircraft missiles which would add a new dimension to the uprising.

Stinger-type missiles could threaten Israeli warplanes or civilian aircraft flying over the area.

"During the course of the past three years, over 70 weapon smuggling tunnels were exposed," the statement said, stressing that 30 were discovered in 2003 alone.

The Palestinian Authority has consistently denied the existence of tunnels under the border and accuses Israel of using them as a pretext to demolish houses along the border and widen its buffer zone, where a fence is being erected.

But the Israeli army outlined all the steps of the smuggling in its statement.

"A landowner who agrees to have a tunnel dug from his house, despite the concern that it might be demolished by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), is located and he receives a considerable sum of money -- sometimes even 1,000 dollars a month," the statement said.

"An engineer who specialises in the excavations of tunnels is chosen. The engineer mobilises and recruits individuals to construct the tunnel, and provides electric and hand-held tools for the job.

"Terror organisations contact people on the Egyptian side, and locate a suitable house or field on the Egyptian side of the border so it will be a starting point for the tunnel," it said.

The army said the excavation work could last between two weeks and two months for tunnels running 12 to 15 metres (40 to 50 feet) underground and 400 metres (a quarter of a mile) long, in which the weapons are towed from one side to the other on a sled.

The army alleged the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in particular was trying to bring in weapons from Iran, a country it accuses of trying to "establish and develop a terror infrastructure in Israel and the territories".

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