America cancels financing of ‘wall of steel’

Occupied Jerusalem – The Palestinian Media Centre
16/06/2010

Israel’s Hebrew Radio has announced that the United States has cancelled support for the ‘wall of steel’ project and has begun to recall American engineers participating in its construction along the Egyptian borders with Gaza.

The radio station announced that Washington has withdrawn financial support allocated to the project which is estimated at approximately half a billion dollars. This move comes in line with Obama’s decision to transfer 400 million dollars to the Palestinians Authority, Fatah, in Ramallah following his recent meeting with Abu Mazen which has been interpreted as the transfer of frozen funds.

The source in question confirmed yesterday’s reports in the Israeli media that Hamas’s penetration of this wall formed part of the reason for the meeting between US Vice President Joe Biden and President Hosni Mubarak. Biden is said to have left the meeting feeling very disappointed.

According to US military and security estimates, all technical steps recently undertaken to regulate the siege of Gaza, the most recent of which has been the “wall of steel”, have resulted in failure. They have credited those they describe as “the architects of Hamas” with the demise of the wall.

Biden is thought to have received detailed reports during his visit to Egypt which confirmed that Hamas had succeeded in penetrating the ‘wall of Steel’ aimed at blocking Gaza’s underground tunnels. Furthermore, Hamas is thought to have succeeded in reaching depths of up to 18 metres below ground.

Reports say that Hamas has begun to bury incendiaries at this depth beneath the sand’s surface capable of melting the steel plate foundations used in the construction of the wall, and thereby possibly benefiting from them when put to alternative uses.