Egyptian Moratorium on Hamas Smuggling

Egyptian soldiers in Rafah, Gaza

Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90

The Muslim Brotherhood was formed about 70 years ago in Egypt. It has spread its membership as an Islamist organization agitating for change in the Muslim world since that time. It is a religious and a political movement, and it is also recognized by some countries of the world as a terrorist organization; most latterly Egypt, which under its most recent government declared it outlawed in  after a one-year flirtation with a Brotherhood government, since ousted.

Official Egypt loathes the Muslim Brotherhood and the compliment is returned. The Brotherhood, with its support among the downtrodden and poverty-stricken resulting from its years of ministering to the needs of those at the bottom scale of social development, creating a relationship of trust and religious conviction, acts both as a humanitarian lifeboat for the poor, and an inciter of rebellion against most conventional Arab governments.

Since its ouster from government the Brotherhood has incited to violence, and it has formed a greater connection with the Bedouin Salafists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, along with al-Qaeda-linked groups, and its own Islamist offshoots, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to attack Egyptian military installations and police. Egypt has responded by arresting Brotherhood authorities and imposing long prison sentences.

Since the loss of their Brotherhood protection as a result of its outlawed status, Hamas has struggled to retain its authority in Gaza, unable to pay the salaries of their civil servants, unable to smuggle goods and  weapons through its underground tunnels with the Egyptian military collapsing them and clearing the border area between Egypt and Gaza of homes of suspected Hamas and Brotherhood sympathizers.

As one of only two Arab countries with a peace treaty signed with Israel, both countries cooperate in measures to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons and construction materials used to build tunnels, into Gaza. All of this has resulted in the inevitable failure of an already-struggling Gaza economy, particularly in the wake of the Israeli defensive incursion into Gaza which saw much of its infrastructure destroyed.

The buffer zone that Egypt enforced along the Sinai border with Gaza has resulted in soaring prices now that the smuggling tunnels used by Hamas to mount lethal attacks on Egyptian soldiers were destroyed. An echo of the technique used by Hamas to mount attacks on Israeli military personnel.
The siege on Gaza imposed by Egypt has indeed reduced the flow of weapons and cash for Hamas through the tunnels.

The smuggling of building materials has been curtailed; materials largely used in the construction of those very tunnels which were estimated to cost roughly $1.2-billion on an annual basis, using the figures given by Ayman Abed of the Gaza economy ministry. Some 1,600 smuggling tunnels have been destroyed by Egypt, along with the demolishing of homes and expelling Gazans from the border area to established the 1 kilometer buffer zone.

"Prices are very high since Egypt completely closed the tunnels. We used to sell Egyptian cheese for ten or 11 shekels and it is now over $6, and we don't sell it anymore, since no one can afford it at this price", said Abu Mohammed, who owns a small supermarket west of Gaza City, mentioning the increase in price of "milk, legumes and even cheese."

And then there is the youth unemployment rate under Hamas rule in Gaza, at 63%. Oxfam reports that over 40% of the population is without employment, with 80% living on humanitarian aid. Because of such humanitarian issues and the world's fixation on Israel's responsibility for the plight of the Palestinians, despite Hamas's charter declaration of destroying Israel, the Jewish state sent  several huge shipments of construction materials into Gaza.

Reports have arisen that Hamas has in fact restarted construction of its terror tunnels into Israel.
Just recently 1,120 tons of cement were delivered by Israel to Gaza, after 1,300 tons of construction materials were transferred on October 14. "When the tunnels were open, a ton of cement sold for just under $100 on the black market. Today it is 3,800 shekels (just under $1,000)", bemoaned Gaza builders' merchant Suheil Tuman.

"Today, Gaza market stalls offer Israeli goods at a price that is more expensive to begin with and to which heavy taxes are added on their entry to Gaza", explained economist Amr Shaabane. In the past, prices in Gaza had been lower than consumer prices in the West Bank, a situation resulting from the economy supported by the smuggling tunnels.