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Sealing border tunnels key to Gaza ceasefire: experts

AFP, Jerusalem
Blocking tunnels running between Gaza and Egypt that are used to move weapons, food and fuel into the Hamas-run territory is emerging as the key issue to ending Israel's war in Gaza, experts say.
Hundreds of tunnels along the 13.5-kilometre border are the focus of talks between the international powers as they scramble to end the Gaza war that has killed mote than 680 Palestinians, a third of them children.
"For there to be an immediate ceasefire we need something that allows us credibly to say we have changed the circumstances in Gaza," said former British premier Tony Blair, the envoy of the four main Middle East peace processsponsors.
"There is a focus in the short term on what we can do to make sure that the smuggling of rockets and finance does not continue into Gaza," the former British premier told reporters in between meetings in Jerusalem.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubabrak on Tuesday presented a US-backed proposal to end the now 12-day-old Gaza fighting that would guarantee "securing" the Gaza-Egypt border.
Israeli commanders esti-
mate there are about 300 tunnels between Gaza and the Sinai desert in Egypt. They say more than half have been destroyed in air raids since Operation Cast. Lead was launched on December 27.
Residents along the border have told AFP, however, that there could be more than 500 tunnels.
Blair said the Middle East Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- is holding talks on a mechanism to stop the smuggling.
Israel says the tunnels, dug mainly around the Egyptian border town of Rafah, are used to import hundreds of tonnes of explosives, rockets and anti-tank missiles.
The head of Israel's Shin Beth internal security services, Yuval Diskin. has repeatedly said Hamas fighters have used the tunnels to get out of Gaza and undergo military training in Iran and Lebanon.
T\tnnel digging has been an industry in Gaza since Hamas seized power in June 2007, triggering a crippling Israeli blockade. The passages vary in size and depth and take between one and two months to dig.
The intricate system has become a vital conduit for goods ranging from food and fuel to cattle and car parts which have become scarce as
Israel has blocked off all but very limited supplies of basic goods.
Egyptian forces aided by US engineering experts have located and destroyed dozens of tunnels in recent months, but Israel says Hamas used a six-month truce before the offensive to acquire a huge amount of weaponry.
The United States has promised Egypt 33 million dollars (22 million euros) to buy new technology to uncover tunnels.
A senior Israeli official told AFP that "stopping the smuggling is the only way to prevent Hamas from regaining its strength following the operation."
But many analysts doubt whether anyone can guarantee a halt to the smuggling, which began even before Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005.
"There is no mechanism that can completely choke this industry. If Israel thinks that someone else will do its job for it, it is wrong," said Efraim Inbar from the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.
"As long as there are people who want to smuggle in this area, there will be no end to it. The only solution is for Israel to destroy the tunnels whenever it discovers one."