VZCZCXRO8610
OO RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #1110/01 1540955
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
O 020955Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9407
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001110 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/2018 
TAGS: PARM PREL PTER IS EG
SUBJECT: GAZA BORDER VISIT: GOE BRIEFING AND TOUR 
 
REF: A. CAIRO 970 
     ¶B. CAIRO 777 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: DCM Stuart Jones for reason 1.4 (b). 
 
¶1. (S) Summary:  Senior LAWIO officers guided a GOE-sponsored 
Congressional staffdel on a tour along the Egypt-Gaza border 
May 26.  In an introductory briefing, LAWIO Chief MG Nagy 
Kamal told us that the GOE has been making recent progress on 
discovering and destroying tunnel openings.  He said that the 
smuggling of "Katusha" rockets into Israel takes place 
primarily via the sea, not under the border.  MG Nagy 
predicted that if the Rafah Crossing were re-opened 
consistent with the 2005 Access and Movement Agreement, the 
smuggling would "disappear."  On a full tour of the Gaza 
border, we viewed the recently completed GOE stone and 
concrete wall and visited an elevated Border Guard Force 
position overlooking Gaza.  We could see war-damaged 
buildings in Palestinian Rafah, as well as new construction. 
LAWIO officers showed us two recently destroyed tunnel 
openings, and explained to us how the tunnels are concealed. 
End summary. 
 
---------------------- 
Initial LAWIO Briefing 
---------------------- 
 
¶2. (S)  In an initial briefing, LAWIO Chief MG Nagy said that 
the cross-border tunnels between Gaza and Egypt are too small 
to transport "Katusha" rocket parts, and that Iran smuggles 
such rockets into Gaza via the sea.  MG Nagy said that Egypt 
has been making progress on discovering and destroying tunnel 
openings in Egyptian Rafah and noted that the GOE had 
discovered 5 tunnels on May 14.  He said that the GOE has 
discovered smuggled goods, such as food, fuel, medicine, 
spare parts, cigarettes, hard currency and illicit drugs, as 
well as ammunition, explosive belts and mines.  Nagy claimed 
that the GOE has discovered 92 tunnel openings thus far in 
2008, compared with 115 openings throughout all of 2007. 
 
¶3. (S) Nagy said that the GOE needs an additional regiment of 
Border Guard Forces (BGFs) to effectively secure the border. 
Describing the border problems as a "political issue," he 
contended that the cross-border smuggling attempts would 
continue as long as Israel limits the movement of 
humanitarian goods into Gaza.  He predicted that if the Rafah 
border crossing were re-opened consistent with the terms in 
the 2005 Agreement on Access and Movement, "the smuggling 
would disappear."  MG Nagy described the situation on the 
border as "calm, but tense" due to frequent Palestinian 
demonstrations demanding that Egypt open the Rafah crossing. 
In a separate conversation, a senior LAWIO officer told us 
that Palestinians conduct peaceful demonstrations of this 
sort most Fridays after prayers, and that there are usually 
about 200 demonstrators holding Palestinian, not Hamas flags. 
 LAWIO officers described their liaison efforts with Israeli 
counterparts as consistently productive, and said that the 
new Israeli working-level point of contact who assumed his 
post in April, Col. Shai Brovander, has been effective. 
 
----------------------- 
A Tour Along the Border 
----------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) LAWIO began the tour at the northwest corner of the 
border along the Mediterranean Sea, at Border Stone One.  To 
arrive at the sea, we drove along the Egyptian military 
access road which lies in front of the newly GOE-built stone 
and concrete wall and behind a concentina-wire barrier.  The 
wire barrier stops about 20 yards from the sea.  At the point 
where the access road stops atop a sand dune about 50 yards 
from the sea, we could see make-shift Hamas observation posts 
directly across the wire barrier.  Plain-clothes GOE EGIS and 
DMI guards stood between us and the wire barrier brandishing 
AK-47s toward Gaza.  Contrary to what we have seen on 
previous visits, there were no Hamas fighters across the 
border at this point, indicating communication and 
coordination between BGF soldiers and Hamas.  Looking out to 
the sea, we could see one Egyptian patrol boat deployed about 
1.5 kilometers off-shore to the northwest.  About 5 
kilometers to the northeast, we saw an Israeli naval vessel 
on patrol.  On the beach, the GOE kept a rigid-hull, 
inflatable patrol boat ready, flanked by BGF sailors. 
 
¶5. (C) Driving south-east along the border, we could see 
damaged apartment buildings and the remains of greenhouses 
from an Israeli settlement across the Philadelphi corridor. 
After Border Stone Two, the Philadelphi Corridor narrows 
considerably to about 50 yards.  At this point, we drove in 
 
CAIRO 00001110  002 OF 002 
 
 
front of the Egyptian pontoon barriers filled with stones and 
metal pushed up against the wire fence.  The Egyptian stone 
and concrete wall behind the access road has openings at its 
top every 50 meters where Egyptian BGFs were stationed with 
machine guns.  The wall also has ramps built in behind it, 
which enable Armored Personnel Carriers to drive up and park 
atop the wall, where BGFs sat with heavy machine guns pointed 
into Gaza.  In other places atop the wall, heavily-armed BGFs 
sat in sand bag-fortified pillboxes looking out into Gaza. 
At one point, the stone and concrete wall ends at the wall of 
a mosque, before beginning again on the mosque's other side. 
LAWIO officers told us that the mosque is still in use.  We 
saw that the Egyptian stone and concrete wall extends the 
entire length of the Gaza border, with only a few small gaps. 
 
¶6. (C) Looking out across the Philadelphi corridor into 
Palestinian Rafah between Border Stones 2 and 4, we could see 
a mostly desolate scene of partially damaged buildings, 
abandoned vehicles and debris.  Flags -- mostly Palestinian, 
but a good number of Hamas and Fatah ones as well -- adorned 
the tops of several apartment buildings.  The only 
Palestinian civilians we saw along this stretch of the border 
were a group of four youths walking, and a man riding a 
donkey cart with his two children who waved at our vehicle. 
We observed several makeshift Hamas viewing outposts, most of 
which were empty, but a few of which appeared to be manned by 
Hamas fighters.  We passed one empty Hamas outpost that 
appeared to be less make-shift that included enclosed rooms 
and possibly bathroom facilities.  All along the Palestinian 
side of the border, we saw that Hamas had either partially or 
completely destroyed the Israeli-built wall, except for the 
section protecting the Palestinian Rafah terminal, and a few 
other small sections. 
 
¶7. (C) LAWIO officers took us to a BGF outpost on the third 
floor balcony of an abandoned building looking out into Gaza, 
about 600 yards south of Border Stone 4.  LAWIO planned to 
take us to a similar outpost further north, but demurred, 
saying, "Hamas is getting too excited on the other side of 
the border."  Three BGF soldiers armed with heavy machine 
guns manned the sandbagged balcony outpost overlooking a 
damaged residential section of Palestinian Rafah across the 
Philadelphi corridor.  From the outpost, we could see 
Palestinian workers in Rafah constructing what appeared to be 
greenhouses.  Looking through BGF high-powered binoculars, we 
could see bullet-pocked and partially destroyed apartment 
buildings, some of which were clearly inhabited, as laundry 
hung drying from the windows.  LAWIO officers said that the 
buildings were damaged in Israeli raids immediately prior to 
the 2005 disengagement and in continuing Israeli Air Force 
strikes in Gaza.  Through the binoculars, we could see 
children playing in the dusty streets. 
 
------- 
Tunnels 
------- 
 
¶8. (C) LAWIO officers showed us a tunnel opening they said 
the GOE had destroyed May 23 in an olive grove 500 yards 
south of the BGF outpost we visited, and approximately 350 
yards from the Philadelphi Corridor; the officers said they 
had not discovered any contraband in the tunnel.  They said 
the GOE is prosecuting the owners of the grove whom the 
Egyptians believe are responsible for constructing the 
tunnel.  LAWIO said that an olive tree had concealed the 
tunnel opening, and that BGF soldiers had located the tunnel 
location through intelligence.  The destroyed tunnel opening 
was about 20 yards from a private family home, but LAWIO said 
that the GOE is not holding the family responsible. 
 
¶9. (C) LAWIO officers showed us a second destroyed tunnel 
opening about 10 yards from the Egyptian-Israeli border fence 
at the Kerem Shalom crossing.  The officers displayed digging 
implements and GPS equipment to determine geographical 
coordinates that they said were found in the tunnel.  The 
Kerem Shalom terminal was empty and locked, as it has been 
since the April 19 Hamas VBIED attack; we could see an 
Israeli watch tower at the terminal blackened from the 
attack, which appeared to be under repair. 
SCOBEY