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Palestinians repair Gaza tunnels

Source ITN

Updated on 22 January 2009

Tunnels bombed by Israel to cut off supply lines between Egypt and the Gaza Strip are being rebuilt.

Hundreds of Palestinians came to Gaza's border with Egypt on Thursday to try to repair tunnels destroyed during the 22-day Israeli offensive and restore a commercial lifeline to the Hamas-ruled territory.

Residents along the border, where some Palestinians own tunnels and run them as businesses, said shipments of fuel and kerosene stoves had already been moving through the several dozen tunnels, out of hundreds, that are still functioning.

Israel has threatened new military action to prevent Hamas from replenishing the rocket arsenal it used to strike southern Israeli towns.

Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, three days after separate ceasefires declared by Israel and Hamas went into effect.

The UN has said there is evidence that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and called for an independent inquiry.

UN investigator Richard Falk compared the mental anguish of the Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza Strip to the victims of Nazism in the Second World War.

Mr Falk, a UN special rapporteur on human rights, said: "To lock people into a war zone is something that evokes the worst kind of international memories of the Warsaw Ghetto, and sieges that occur unintentionally during a period of wartime."

He said evidence that Israel's actions in Gaza violated international humanitarian law required an independent investigation into whether they amounted to war crimes, saying: "I believe that there is the prima facie case for reaching that conclusion."

About 1,300 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed and 5,000 wounded in the assault. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians, hit by cross-border rocket fire, were killed.

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.

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