The fact that smuggling would increase with the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza should surprise no one. For years, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on the ?Philadelphia Route? played a cat and mouse game with smugglers who tunneled from Rafah into Egypt . The Israelis uncovered tunnels that over the years became more sophisticated. The Palestinians along the Gaza-Egyptian border never stopped tunneling and, at one point, had tunnels that where large enough for people to walk through upright.
Soon after the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was signed, Palestinians began digging a series of tunnels that extended from Rafah into Egypt. The clan that controlled these tunnels profited handsomely from the sale of contraband. Egyptian smugglers delivered the goods to one end of the tunnel entrance, and the Palestinians sent individuals to move the goods through the tunnel into Gaza.
With the return of Yasser Arafat to Gaza in 1994, the Palestinian National Authority needed to acquire and smuggle additional weapons and explosives into Gaza. Arafat turned this strategic task over to the Sema Dana clan in Gaza that ran the largest smuggling network from Egypt. Jemal Abu Sema Dana, the head of this clan, delivered weapons and contraband to Moussa Arafat (see photo left) (WAR Report) in Gaza. Jemal Abu Sema Dana, the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, was appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas (see photo right) as Chief of Military Intelligence in Gaza.
For years, the Israelis were not able to stop the smuggling of weapons, explosives, and contraband into Gaza. Now that the fox is in charge of the hen house, the rise in smuggling is likely to continue to spiral out of control. But, the weapons that are being smuggled into Gaza are intended to be used against the Palestinian National Authority. With the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the need to arm the population to defend itself from Israeli attacks is moot. Various terrorist groups are consolidating and rearming themselves at an alarming rate in anticipation that, at some point, there will be a showdown in Gaza. As a Palestinian once told this analyst, ?the one with the most guns wins? is what is driving the rise in smuggling weapons. Not that Gaza was ever short on weapons, but with more individual terrorist groups arming themselves and challenging the Palestinian Authority and other groups, sooner or later there will be a showdown. The rule of law in Gaza has long been by the gun, and the group with the most guns might one day prevail.
