More Trouble In Gaza

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Israel's campaign against Palestinian militants took a particularly tragic turn last week. Israeli troops have lately been engaged in an intense hunt for the tunnels Palestinians use to smuggle weapons into Rafah, the southernmost town in the Gaza Strip. During one such operation, Israeli commanders ordered a tank to fire warning shots over the heads of a crowd of Palestinian protesters--fearing they would cut off a clutch of Israeli infantrymen--and wound up killing seven people. The deaths provoked international outrage. Even the U.S., Israel's staunchest ally, withheld its veto and permitted the U.N. Security Council to condemn the incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Israel says it wants to pull its troops out of Rafah--but only as far as the Egyptian border, because it is still determined to plug the weapons pipeline. The tunnels are dug under cinder-block tenements in Shabourah, the refugee camp in Rafah. Home to 90,000 Palestinians, the camp once extended to the border, but dozens of refugee homes have been demolished over the course of the intifadeh to build a 300-yd. buffer zone between camp and border to thwart smugglers. Now, Israeli military officials tell TIME, they hope to extend the buffer to 900 yds., which would mean a destruction of hundreds more refugee homes.

Such measures continue to draw international fire. But militants in Rafah tell TIME that the Lebanese militia Hizballah has indeed used the tunnels to smuggle weaponry and explosives to Palestinian militants in Gaza. They say the materiel comes via African countries where Hizballah has a network among Lebanese emigres. Israeli intelligence officers confirm that Sudan is a major source, but say most of the guns and bombs still originate in Lebanon. They believe Palestinian groups are trying to acquire deadlier plastic explosives, and fear that the tunnels could also be used to import Katyusha missiles into Gaza. In the face of such threats, Israel does not seem likely to end its aggressive tactics anytime soon.

--By Matt Rees, Jamil Hamad and Aharon Klein