As seen at TheMediaLine.org.
Egypt is reinforcing security along its border with Gaza while it installs a barrier to prevent smuggling into the Gaza Strip.
Several hundred policemen and armored patrol vehicles have reportedly been deployed along the border where digging is taking place.
Hamas is condemning Egypt’s plans to build what is said to be a 10-kilometer-long underground steel wall, referring to witnesses in the area who say preparatory excavations have begun.
“The police will patrol the area, because yesterday people were shooting on the Egyptian side when they saw heavy equipment trying to dig the steel wall,” Ahmad Yousuf, a political advisor for the Hamas government in Gaza told The Media Line. “The police tried to secure the area and make sure no one would fire any more bullets.”
Cairo has not officially confirmed the barrier, but admits it is strengthening security along the border.
Increased security was prompted by a series of four separate incidents in which Palestinians from Gaza opened fire on Egyptian workers and equipment.
There were no reported injuries from the attacks, which analysts suspect came from smugglers fearing the barrier will harm their livelihoods.
Hamas claim plans for the barrier began during George W. Bush’s administration, and is in order “to stifle 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, after the Zionist enemy failed to break their resolve using killing, destruction, stifling and siege.”
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said this measure was taken “after the Zionist-American failure to internationalize Gaza’s borders after the last war on Gaza.”
Barhoum added that Egypt and the Arab and Muslim states had a national, moral, humanitarian and religious obligation to thwart these plans, end the siege on Gaza and stand by the Palestinian people.
Naji Shurab, a political science professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza said if the barrier is erected it would hurt Gaza’s economy.
“The majority of the people here in Gaza rely on what is coming from Egypt for substantial foods,” he told The Media Line. The solution, he argued, would be to allow more goods to enter Egypt legally via the official crossings.
Although Hamas controls the Palestinian side of the only official crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt [the Rafah Crossing], Egypt’s control over its side, effectively decides who will enter or depart. Egypt opens the border only sporadically for short periods, mainly for humanitarian purposes.
“Palestinians here in Gaza have no option but to respect the Egyptian decision,” Shurab said. “Any state has the right to protect its borders with all measures, whether it means building a fence of iron or anything else.”
Israel restricted the passage of goods into Gaza after Hamas won the legislative elections in 2006, and more severely when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a violent coup in June 2007.
Israel and the United States define Hamas as a terror organization. The movement has refused to fall in line with international demands to recognize Israel, acknowledge previously signed agreements and renounce violence.
Since the Gaza Strip has been cut off from most goods, Palestinians have been using tunnels to bring basic goods from the Sinai Peninsula into the Gaza Strip.
The makeshift tunnels are often weakly built with poor ventilation. Dozens of Palestinians have died as a result of tunnels collapsing, fires and asphyxiation.
The smuggled goods include household items, money, cigarettes, gasoline, livestock and even cars.
Illegal materials have also been known to pass, such as drugs, terrorists, weapons and ammunition.
Egypt has a major role to play in the Gaza Strip since it both controls the border and holds political sway over the deposed Hamas government.
Egypt is trying to broker a reconciliation deal between Hamas and its main rival Fatah and between Hamas and Israel in an effort to reach a prisoner exchange deal which would see several hundred Palestinian prisoners exchanged for the release of Hamas-held, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
“I think this might be a message from Egypt to Hamas that ‘you have no option but to go to reconciliation.’” Shurab said.
Yoni Fighel, a senior terrorism researcher at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism at the Inter-Disciplinary Center in Herzeliya said Egypt is looking out first and foremost for its own interests.
“Over the years, Egypt has become a conduit country for people transferring ammunition through Egypt into the Gaza Strip,” Fighel told The Media Line. “It’s clear to Israel, Egypt and the United States that the ones initiating these smuggling routes are Iran and the global Jihad, who are also threatening the stability of Egypt. Some of these people can also operate inside Egypt and terror attacks inside Egypt will affect the stability of the regime.”
“Egypt has its own interests and does what’s good for Egypt, which is law, order and political stability,” Fighel said. “Anything that undermines this is an Egyptian concern, such as the stability of the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.”
Cairo has come under heavy criticism in the past from both Israel and the United States for failing to do enough to stop the smuggling of weapons, illegal drugs and human trafficking.
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