Egypt tightens noose round Gaza

Israel stopped all but the most essential food and medicine entering Gaza in June 2007. Hamas, the Islamist party which won the parliamentary elections against Fatah in January 2006, took control of Gaza in order to pre-empt a Fatah coup backed by Israel, the US, Jordan and Egypt. Israel has also banned virtually all exports from Gaza.

However, Israel’s blockade could not succeed without the help of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak. He has played a crucial role by agreeing to police Gaza’s southern border at Rafah—the only entry point that does not pass through Israel—restricting the movement of people and goods and enforcing the Israeli blockade. Rafah is open only occasionally, and to people, not goods.

The Israeli-Egyptian siege has created the most appalling levels of poverty, deprivation and misery. Gaza’s lifeline is the 400 tunnels under its border with Egypt, which bring in $1 million of goods a day, as well as cash and weapons for Hamas. Egypt and Israel have resorted to blowing up the tunnels in order to keep Gaza sealed and Hamas, which is closely related to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition party, isolated.

Now Mubarak has begun the construction of a 14-kilometre-long wall made of super strength steel that extends 18 metres underground. Designed by US army engineers, the wall has been manufactured in the US and tested to ensure it is bomb proof. It is being sunk close to the perimeter wall, with four kilometres already completed north of the Rafah crossing. Many Gazans believe that Egypt plans to flood the area.

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