Tunnels Collapse Taking More Lives in Gaza Al Mezan Demands Gaza Government Take Effective Steps to Protect Tunnel Workers

Further people have been killed as a result of collapsing tunnels in Gaza.
In September 2009 alone, six Palestinian men died in tunnel collapses, raising the tunnels’ death toll to 116; four of the 116 were children.
Of the 116, 106 people were killed in 2008 and 2009, 55 of whom were killed in the first nine months of 2009.
A further 51 people were injured in tunnel incidents during September 2009.
In addition, five Palestinians were killed inside tunnels as a result of two Israeli aerial attacks carried-out in 2009, raising the total death toll to 121.
Al Mezan Centre demands that the Gaza Government take effective steps to protect the lives of those who work in the tunnels, most of whom are driven to this type of work as a result of the conditions of extreme poverty prevailing in Gaza.
  According to field investigations conducted by Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, at approximately 8:50am on Saturday 27 September 2009, Ismail Salama Abu Jlidan, 22, died, and Mohammed Subhi Abu Sabla, 40, and Rami Mahmoud Abu Khamash, 25, were injured.
According to medical sources at An-Najar Hospital in Rafah, the latter two sustained moderate injuries.
The victims were retrieved from a tunnel that had collapsed while they were inside it at the borderline with Egypt near As-Salam neighborhood south of Rafah town.
  At approximately 1.
00am on Saturday 11 September 2009, civil defense teams recovered the dead bodies of Mohammed Jammal Zua'rub, 19, and Mohammed Mustafa Zua'rub, 19; both from Khan Younis town.
They died in a tunnel collapse at the borderline with Egypt near Salah Ad-Dien Gate south of Rafah town.
  At approximately 9:40pm on Thursday 17 September 2009, Mohammed Joma'a Abu Ar-Rous, 45, from Rafah, died as a result of an electric shock in a tunnel at the borderline.
According to sources at An-Najar Hospital, Abu Ar-Rous was admitted to hospital as a dead body.
  At approximately 8:50pm on Friday 18 September 2009, Mustafa Safwat Salhiya, 19, from Khan Youins, died and four others were injured due to a tunnel collapse at the borderline with Egypt.
According to medical sources at An-Najar Hospital, the injuries are moderate.
    At approximately 1:00am on Friday 25 September 2009, Bassam Adel Mubarak, 21, from An-Nuseirat refugee camp died and Yasser Naim Hejazi, 25, from Gaza was injured in a tunnel collapse.
According to medical sources at An-Najar Hospital, his injuries were moderate.
  Civil defense teams found Hejazi in a collapsed tunnel at the borderline with Egypt near Al-Brazil neighborhood.
  Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights expresses its deep regret for the high number of victims in these incidents.
Most of the people who work in tunnels are from very poor backgrounds and have been forced to undertake this kind of work to provide for their families under the difficult socio-economic conditions caused by the Israeli siege on Gaza.
Nevertheless, Al Mezan re-asserts that the smuggling tunnels remain illegal.
    It should be noted that the tight siege imposed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the Gaza Strip, which prevents the free movement of the commodities and humanitarian supplies, has driven the tunnel industry in Gaza, which has prospered in response to the sharp lack of essential goods in Gaza.
The siege represents a form of unlawful collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza and has seriously harmed their human rights while the international community has remained silence.
  As tunnels represent an inevitable alternative for society to attempt to deal with the impact of the Israeli siege, Al Mezan expects that the Government in Gaza would monitor and regulate this industry; including by taking measures to protect the life, safety and wellbeing of those who work in it.
Until this industry is abolished, the Government must ensure that all the necessary safety measures and equipment needed for quick rescue operations are in place.
The Government is also responsible for monitoring the quality and prices of the goods that enter the Gaza Strip.
Al Mezan finds it incomprehensible that the authorities have not made any significant efforts to regulate this industry despite the very high death rates it causes and the very high prices of the goods that enter Gaza even when goods are available in the market.
The authorities in Gaza are also responsible for monitoring and preventing the widespread cases of fraud in this industry   Therefore, Al Mezan Centre calls on the Gaza Government to take immediate steps to act upon the obligations it owes to Palestinian citizens in Gaza.
The tunnels’ catastrophe must end.
If shutting it off entirely does not seem objectively attainable now, the authorities, at minimum, are responsible for taking all the necessary measures to protect its workers and the entire population from the consequences of the lack of its regulation.
  Ends