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Egypt steps up Gaza tunnel crackdown, dismaying Palestinians
 [Al Ahram] Egypt has intensified a crackdown on smuggling tunnels between its volatile Sinai desert and the Gazoo Strip, causing a steep hike in petrol and cement prices in the Paleostinian territory.Paleostinians involved in the tunnel business say that the campaign, which began in March and has included flooding of underground passages, was ramped up in the past two weeks before a wave of opposition-led protests in Egypt expected to start on 30 June. Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has come under political fire at home over a strong challenge to his authority by krazed killer Islamists in the Sinai who have attacked Egyptian security forces in the peninsula. Egypt's military, struggling to fill a security vacuum in the Sinai since autocrat Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... was swept from power in 2011, has pledged to shut all tunnels under the Gazoo border, saying they are used by bully boyz on both sides to smuggle activists and weapons. The moves against the tunnels have dashed the hopes of many Paleostinians that Mursi, a member of the Moslem Brüderbund from which Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, was born, would significantly ease Egyptian border restrictions on Gazoo, which is also subjected to blockade by Israel. "Business is clinically dead," said Abu Bassam, who employs 40 workers in a Paleostinian tunnel network in Rafah, a town on the border. "Tunnels are almost shut down completely." Posted by: Fred 2013-06-25 |
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