09/01/2009 / PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - EGYPT

Exclusive raw video: through the wardrobe… into Gaza

This exclusive video shows one of the famous tunnels linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt. The underground passage begins...inside the wardrobe of a Rafah bedroom. This document was sent to us by one of our Observers there, who got it from an Egyptian police officer.

Destroying the tunnels that run between Egypt and Gaza is one of the main objectives of Israel's operation "Cast Lead". According to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), all sorts of articles are smuggled through the Hamas-controlled tunnels, including the rockets that are then fired into Israeli territory.

Contributors

Bassam Shakaa

"This footage was sent via Bluetooth"

Our Observer on the Egyptian side of Rafah (a town straddling both sides of the border between Gaza and Egypt), explains the origins of the video.

This footage was sent via Bluetooth by one of the officers working in the frontier town [Rafah]. We haven't identified the source of the images, but the officer that sent them to me was keen to stress the violent and mafioso nature of Hamas. He told me that the video of the wardrobe where the hidden tunnel starts was filmed in the house of an Egyptian smuggler in Rafah. I showed the video to several contacts, who told me that the video must be over a year old and the smuggler has since been arrested since his own wife turned him in."

Bassam Shakaa also sent us another video, which shows a man being machine gunned on the ground. According to the Egyptian police officer, the footage was shot with a mobile phone in a Gaza street. The killer was a Hamas militant, settling a score with a member of the Palestinian Authority. We decided not to show the video, due to its shocking content and the difficulties in verifying the information.  

Bassam Shakaa

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