Gazans Put Smuggling Tunnels To Good Use

The Times headline 'Gaza mud houses are answer to a prayer for the homeless', makes you (or maybe it's just me) think of a family huddled in a squelchy mud-igloo with mud glooping down from the sagging roof, and their feet sinking through to the floor below. But it turns out that the Gazans have been using the earth excavated from the weapons tunnels to make bricks to build with. The houses are cool in summer, warm in winter, and bullet proof. I'm impressed. By not allowing cement into Gaza, which could be used to make weapons, Israel is essentially helping the Palestinians to help themselves and each other, and be resourceful. Although, seeing as these houses seem to be much sturdier than the mud-igloos implied by the headline, somehow I don't think mud bricks is such a new idea, but it's nice that the Gazans are doing something constructive.