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An Egyptian security official told Palestinian Maan news agency that four people from Egypt were arrested near the Rafah crossing over suspicions they intended to smuggle maps of security installations in Sinai and weapons to the Gaza Strip. Accoring to the source, the terror cell admitted that they planned to smuggle the intel and weapons into Gaza in order to attack the sites. (Roi Kais) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4366596,00.html
EL-ARISH, Egypt - Egyptian authorities on Monday detained three Palestinians who entered the country illegally from Gaza, a security source said.
The Palestinians were arrested after crossing into Egypt through tunnels in Rafah, the Egyptian security official told Ma'an.
Armed Forces claim finding fabric for military and police uniforms in Gaza tunnel and asks Egyptians to exercise caution The Egyptian army found three rolls of fabric used to make army uniforms and two rolls for police uniforms in a tunnel between Sinai and Gaza on Saturday, according to a statement from the spokesperson of the Armed Forces on Sunday. The military said it found the materials in a tunnel in the Al-Sarsoureya region. The three rolls of fabric were “identical” to those used in the making of army uniforms, according to the army, and the other two rolls of cloth were the same as those used in the manufacturing of police uniforms. “The Armed Forces appeals to Egyptian citizens to exercise caution,” read the statement. It also warned of the possibility of an incident involving the impersonation of Egyptian military personnel. The military has worked to destroy the various tunnels from Sinai to Gaza in an effort to restrict illicit trade violating the current blockade and border regulations at the Rafah border crossing. http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/03/17/army-finds-uniforms-in-gaza-tunnel/
Gaza will export wooden furniture to Egypt on Monday, a Palestinian Authority crossings official said.
Raed Fattouh told Ma'an that 350 trucks with commercial and agricultural goods will enter the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing, while two truckloads of wooden furniture will leave for Egypt.
Business was booming for Gaza brick-maker Yasser Qreqea, until neighbouring Egypt shut down smuggling tunnels across its border that were funnelling arms to fighters in the territory and cement and other basic goods to everyone else.
Overnight the price of building materials soared in the Gaza Strip, hitting Qreqea’s key customers and, industry sources said, slowing the construction of apartments, roads and houses across the enclave run by Hamas Islamists. (...) Egypt said it started flooding and sealing the network of tunnels in February to cut a two-way flow of smuggled weapons that was destabilising its border area in the Sinai peninsula, where separate groups of Islamists operate. Cairo’s decision also cut a lifeline to around 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza, hit by a blockade on a wide range of goods imposed by Israel in 2007 after Hamas took power. The tunnels had been used to bypass the blockade and smuggle in all kinds of merchandise, including cars, livestock and fuel - around 30 per cent of all goods that reached the enclave, according to some estimates. A month ago, a tonne of cement cost 350 shekels ($95) in the Gaza Strip. After the tunnel closures, the price rose to 650 shekels before Hamas pressured merchants to bring it down to its current 480 shekel mark. “I have been speaking to contractors and I understood many of them have suspended building because of the unstable and higher prices of cement,” said Ali Al- ayek, chairman of the Palestinian Businessmen’s Association. More on: http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/egypt-s-tunnel-closure-hits-gaza-builders-1.1155261
“The Egypt of today isn’t the Egypt of yesterday ... (We) won’t leave Gaza on its own,” President Mohammed Mursi said in November amid Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian territory. It is ironic, then, that the Egypt of today has been actively partaking with Israel in the blockade of Gaza, much like it did under dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Since Feb. 3, Egyptian authorities have been flooding the tunnels that have been Gaza’s economic lifeline since the blockade began in 2006. They say the operation will continue until they are all closed, and have reportedly confiscated large quantities of goods, including food, building materials and computers.
There have been eye-witness accounts by the mainstream media of tunnel workers rushing for safety because no prior flood-warning was given. To add insult to injury, and for no discernible reason, they have been filled not just with water, but also sewage. Egypt’s justifications
Cairo has cited security reasons for its crackdown, amid domestic, regional and international concern over increasing lawlessness in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The pipelines delivering gas to Israel have reportedly been bombed more than 15 times in the last two years, and several military checkpoints have been attacked in recent months. “We don’t want to see these tunnels used for illegal ways of smuggling either people or weapons that can really harm Egyptian security,” said Mursi’s national security adviser Essam Haddad. Army spokesman Ahmed Mohamed Ali said: “We realize how much our brothers in Palestine suffer, but that doesn’t mean that the Egyptian Armed Forces will allow anyone to harm national interests.(...) “I support Egypt’s right to protect its security,” wrote Abdel Bari Atwan, the Palestinian editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi. However, if the tunnels had been flooded after the August attack, “it might be more understandable,” he added (...)
Egyptian forces in Rafah seized 5,000 gallons of fuel ready to be smuggled into Gaza on Sunday, security officials told Ma’an.
Egyptian border guards discovered the fuel shipment while monitoring a tunnel smuggling area on the Egyptian side of Rafah.
In late January, Qatari-donated fuel to Gaza was suspended due to the security situation in Egypt. Violent clashes between Sinai-based armed terrorists and Egyptian forces led to a suspension of deliveries last November, but they resumed in January. The Qatari fuel is part of 5.5 million gallons donated by the Gulf state to ease Gaza’s energy crisis. Last week, Egyptian forces began flooding smuggling tunnels under the Gaza border in a campaign to shut them down. The tunnels have provided a lifeline to Gaza Arabs since Israel intensified its blockade of the Gaza.
Egypt's crackdown on smuggling tunnels to the Gaza Strip will not succeed unless alternatives to importing produce are provided, an official in Gaza's Hamas-run government said Wednesday.
Several days ago, Egyptian forces began flooding smuggling tunnels under the Gaza border in a campaign to shut them down.(...) "This is not the first time the Egyptian authorities have tried to shut down the tunnels, but neither of of the attempts have been successful," Minister of Economy Alaa Rafati told Ma'an. The government in Gaza has informed Cairo several times that an official commercial route should be opened along the border, including a duty-free zone, Rafati said.
"We are interested in entry of all goods via Rafah crossing," the minister said.
Rafati said that despite the flooding of tunnels, all goods, including fuel, were still entering the enclave.
"Some Egyptian commanders are flooding tunnels on their own for personal interests," he added.
Muhammad al-Abadla, a member of the union of gas station owners, said fuel supplies had been affected by the Egyptian crackdown but that the situation was not critical. More on: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=567409
Hamas released a statement on Saturday condemning Egypt’s closure of tunnels with Gaza, saying this renews Israel’s blockade on the strip, reported AFP.
Khalil El-Haya, a senior Hamas official, said at a conference in Gaza that the tunnels were the only means available to Palestinians to face Israel's “brutal blockade,” reported the agency.
“It is a renewal of the blockade...but Egypt does not want that to happen,” Haya said, urging Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah border crossing to end the blockade. Hamas shutting down tunnels Last Wednesday, Hamas have closed hundreds of tunnels running under the territory's border with Egypt due to health concerns over some smuggled items.
“Less than 270 tunnels are operating now, down from around 1,200 tunnels in 2010,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. More on: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/17/266758.html
Egyptian authorities deported ten Palestinians to the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening after they were found to have entered the country illegally, security officials told Ma'an.
The Palestinians were accused of entering Egypt's Sinai peninsula through tunnels under the Gaza border. Egypt has put their names on a blacklist to prevent them re-entering Egypt, the officials said.
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The Egyptian Army Forces have shut down all tunnels in Arish Governorate’s Sarsoriya region, an area where smugglers are known to transport goods and commodities between Egypt and Gaza. About 250 tunnels have been demolished so far, according to a military source in North Sinai Governorate. Forces are now turning their attention to tunnels in the vicinity of the Salaheddin and Barahema checkpoints, notorious for human trafficking, the source said. On Wednesday, troops stationed in the border area of Rafah seized 70, 000 liters of petrol and diesel due to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the tunnels. Almasry Alyoum, via Egypt.com More : http://news.egypt.com/english/permalink/177313.html
A security source said that the campaign, led by the army’s Corp of Engineers, would continue daily. The source went on to say that the army had discovered a number of new entrances leading to the tunnels, located far off from the city’s residential areas, which would facilitate the army’s ability to destroy them without breaking into residents’ homes. He added that in addition to blowing up the tunnels, methods such as flooding or filling them with sand and rocks were also being used as a means of making them inaccessible. He added that special commando units had also been used to infiltrate and destroy some of the tunnels. He further went on to state that eight trucks had recently been caught and apprehended while in the process of transporting smuggled fuel into the Gaza Strip.
Nasser El-Azzazy / Daily news Egypt More : http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/03/19/egypts-armed-forces-continue-to-destroy-tunnels-leading-to-gaza/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DailyNewsEgypt+%28Daily+News+Egypt%29
Une enquête publiée jeudi dans Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, un magazine hebdomadaire égyptien, affirme que c'est le Hamas qui a perpétré l'une des plus sanglantes attaques menées contre l'armée égyptienne depuis des années.
Allégations que rejette violemment l'aile militaire du Hamas qui accuse le journal de "répandre des mensonges flagrants".
Abu Obeida, porte-parole de l'aile militaire du Hamas, Izzedine al Qassam, décrit le rapport comme "des illusions et des rêves... cohérents avec les efforts de la propagande sioniste pour semer la discorde entre la résistance et le peuple égyptien".
En août dernier, des hommes armés avaient pris d'assaut un poste-frontière égyptien et tué les gardes avant de s'emparer d'un véhicule blindé qu'ils avaient ensuite utilisé pour tenter d'ataquer la frontière avec Israël.
Les autorités égyptiennes avaient déclaré que des militants à Gaza avaient soutenu l'attaque en tirant des obus de mortier depuis l'enclave vers le poste-frontière.
Après l'attaque, l'Égypte avait mis en cause un groupe de trente-cinq militants venant à la fois de la bande de Gaza et du Sinaï - qui abrite des groupes islamistes dont certains sont plus radicaux que le Hamas.
Mohammed Morsi lui-même avait déclaré que les assaillants "le paieraient cher".
Pour l'armée israélienne, cette attaque faisait partie d'une tentative d'enlèvement d'un soldat israélien.
L'article d'Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, basé sur le rapport d'un fonctionnaire anonyme de haut rang, a publié les noms des trois commandants du Hamas qui auraient orchestré et exécuté l'attentat.
Les militants du Hamas, impliqués dans l'attaque, auraient reçu l'aide d'islamistes du Sinaï.
L'un d'entre eux serait Ayman Nofal, un militant du Hamas arrêté dans le Sinaï il y a trois ans quand Hosni Moubarak était encore au pouvoir.
Accusé d'avoir planifié des attentats et emprisonné, il s'était échappé de prison pendant le chaos de 2011 dû au soulèvement anti-Moubarak et avait rejoint Gaza à travers un tunnel de contrebande.
Le magazine Al-Ahram al-Arabi est étroitement lié à des agences de sécurité proches de l'armée égyptienne, armée qui entretient actuellement des relations pour le moins tendues avec le président Mohammed Morsi.
Les officiers supérieurs ont, à plusieurs reprises, émis des mises en garde à peine voilées sur le fait qu'ils pourraient reprendre en mains la gestion du pays. Plus: http://www.israel-infos.net/Egypte--La-tension-monte-avec-le-Hamas--10023.html
source in the Egyptian army said, Sunday evening, that military engineers succeeded in shutting down more than 60 tunnels used for smuggling between the Sinai Peninsula and Hamas-controlled Gaza. The source told a local newspaper that dozens of the tunnels were flooded with water and will not be usable again.
Le leadership égyptien exhorte les dirigeants de Gaza à suivre son exemple pour tenter de convaincre la communauté internationale de sa légitimité. Lorsque les Frères musulmans et Mohamed Morsi sont arrivés au pouvoir en Égypte, le Hamas espérait légitimement en bénéficier pour se renforcer. Une situation plus complexe aujourd'hui.
Les dirigeants du Hamas commencent à "déchanter" : au lieu d'alléger les obstacles rencontrés par les dirigeants de la bande de Gaza, Morsi et sont entourage ont envoyé au Hamas un message totalement différent.
La confrérie musulmane, fière de l'image qu'elle a su donner, une image qui encourage la communauté internationale à l'accepter à la direction de l'Égypte, enjoint désormais au Hamas d'emprunter le chemin de la "respectabilité".
L'exemple le plus frappant est la position adoptée par les Frères musulmane concernant les tunnels de contrebande entre l'Égypte et l'enclave de Gaza. L'armée égyptienne a récemment commencé à inonder une dizaine de tunnels.
Un tribunal égyptien a renchéri sur cette position, en statuant que tous les tunnels devaient être détruits car ils sont une menace pour la sécurité de l'Égypte. Et les Frères musulmans, même s'ils ne sont pas entièrement favorables à une décision aussi radicale, s'alignent.
Issam al-Haddad, un dirigeant des Frères, conseiller de Morsi pour les Affaires étrangères, a déclaré que l'Égypte ne permettrait pas la circulation des armes par les tunnels car "cela sape la stabilité de l'Egypte dans la péninsule du Sinaï".
Cette position pragmatique n'est pas nouvelle, on pouvait déjà la lire en filigrane en novembre dernier dans l'attitude et les commentaires qui ont émaillé, côté égyptien, le déroulement de l'opération Pilier de Défense.
Lors d'une séance convoquée en urgence au sein de la Confrérie, le débat a fait rage sur la façon de soutenir – ou pas – les combattants de Gaza. L'idée a été lancée par certains que l'Égypte devrait fermer les yeux devant l'afflux d'armes à Gaza, et même soutenir le Hamas et les organisations terroristes par des armes et des financements. Plus: http://www.israel-infos.net/Les-Freres-musulmans-egyptiens-au-Hamas--le-Djihad-mais-autrement-9977.html
Egyptian attorney Wael Hamdy: "I filed the case because I was worried about the state of national security in my country after the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power and its unclear policies and links with Hamas."
A Cairo court ruled on Tuesday that the government must destroy all tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, removing a route for smuggled weapons but also a lifeline for Palestinians. Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood has close ties with the Hamas Islamists who run the Gaza Strip, but many Egyptians fear the enclave is a security risk for Egypt. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's national security adviser Essam Haddad said Egypt would not tolerate the two-way flow of smuggled arms through the tunnels, which is destabilizing Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian forces flooded some of the tunnels earlier this month. "The court ruled to make it obligatory that the government destroys the tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip," Judge Farid Tanaghou said. An estimated 30 percent of goods that reach Gaza's 1.7 million Palestinian residents come through the tunnels, circumventing a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt for more than seven years. More on:http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=7789
The Egyptian government has declared war on Gaza’s network of subterranean tunnels. The area where tunnels once connected Gaza to Egypt has been flooded with wastewater by Egyptian authorities. The aim is to destroy the majority of the tunnels, but leave 50 that will be under the supervision of Hamas and only permit the passage of foodstuff and construction supplies. An Egyptian source, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed the details. He said that the Egyptian-mediated agreements between Hamas and Israel following the November 2012 war on Gaza dictated the destruction of most tunnels. The same source explained that closing the tunnels was one of the secret conditions of the truce sponsored by former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to prevent the smuggling of weapons to the Palestinian resistance. He added, “Hamas is studying the political situation and will make decisions that will benefit it in the short and long term. Hamas needs a fresh strategy for a new crisis it might face with the Muslim Brotherhood’s declining power in Egypt and the Egyptian army’s disapproval of the current situation in the Sinai.” The Egyptian source argued that “it is in Hamas’ interest if political developments lead to opening the border crossings and ending the siege...as long as Hamas appears as a victor.” Palestinian political analyst Akram Atallah believes that Egypt could not have shut down the tunnels had it not garnered Israeli guarantees that the siege on Gaza would be eased. (Al-Akhbar) More : http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/what-waste-egypt-floods-gazas-tunnels
Hamas a exprimé sa protestation envers la campagne sécuritaire menée par l’Egypte pour fermer les tunnels de Gaza. L’Egypte a procédé à l’inondation par les eaux usées des tunnels, seule bouffée d’oxygène pour Gaza du fait du blocus asphyxiant qui lui est imposé.
Un responsable du mouvement islamiste, Hamas, a exprimé hier (jeudi) sa protestation auprès de l’Egypte du fait de la campagne sécuritaire visant à fermer les tunnels de la bande de Gaza.
Le dirigeant de Hamas, Salah Bardaouil, a déclaré à l’agence de presse allemande, relayée par le site d’alJazeera , que son mouvement a évoqué la question de fermeture des tunnels avec la partie égyptienne, et a formulé son espoir que les responsables égyptiens soient compréhensifs envers la position à Gaza et le besoin de la poursuite de l’activité des tunnels.
Il a ajouté que "la fermeture des tunnels sans fournir une solution de rechange pour approvisionner la bande de Gaza, revient à exercer une forte pression sur le peuple palestinien", se disant confiant que "l’Egypte de l’après-révolution ne fera pas des pressions sur Gaza". (gnet)
Plus : http://www.gnet.tn/revue-de-presse-internationale/gaza-legypte-inonde-les-tunnels-par-les-eaux-usees-hamas-proteste/id-menu-957.html
The Hamas government and Gazan smugglers accused Egypt of flooding cross-border tunnels with sewage water in order to halt a thriving smuggling trade. Abu Saker, a smuggler on the Egyptian side of the border, said he saw the Egyptian army digging new water wells and pumping wastewater towards the smuggling area today. He said he had to halt operations and rush his workers out after his tunnel filled with 1.5 metres of sewage. At least 15 tunnels were filled with wastewater. More on:http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/hamas-accuses-egypt-of-flooding-gaza-tunnels-with-wastewater
Egypt will not tolerate a two-way flow of smuggled arms with the Gaza Strip that is destabilising its Sinai peninsula, a senior aide to its Islamist president said, explaining why Egyptian forces flooded sub-border tunnels last week.
The network of tunnels has been a lifeline for some 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza, bringing in an estimated 30 percent of all goods that reach the enclave and circumventing a blockade imposed by Israel for more than seven years.
But Essam Haddad, national security adviser to President Mohamed Mursi told Reuters in an interview: "We don't want to see these tunnels used for illegal ways of smuggling either people or weapons that can really harm Egyptian security." He said that under a deal brokered by Cairo to end fighting in November between Israel and the Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip, the Israeli stranglehold on the coastal territory had been considerably relaxed. Egypt has eased border controls to allow in construction materials, notably from Qatar.
"Now we can say that the borders are open to a good extent - it could still be improved - and the needs of the Gazan people are allowed in. Building materials are allowed in for the first time," Haddad said.
"And on the other side, we would not like to see arms smuggled through these tunnels either in or out, because we are now seeing in Sinai and we have captured actually across Egypt heavy arms that could be used in a very dangerous way." (...) WEAPONS SMUGGLING INCREASED
Despite the flooding of the tunnels, which sparked bitter complaints from Palestinians, Haddad said relations with Hamas, ideologically close to the Muslim Brotherhood movement now ruling in Cairo, were good.
Egypt has been trying, so far without success, to coax Hamas and the Fatah nationalist movement that runs the Palestinian Authority which controls the West Bank to agree on a national unity government and elections. More on: http://www.60news.com/news-egypt-flooded-tunnels-to-cut-gaza-arms-flow-aide-188123/
La politique n'a ni père ni mère ; elle n'obéit qu'aux intérêts." LeHamas palestinien ferait bien de méditer sur ce dicton millénaire perse. Les islamistes au pouvoir à Gaza viennent en effet de subir un véritable camouflet de la part des autorités égyptiennes, pourtant issues comme eux de la confrérie des Frères musulmans. L'affront est de taille : Le Caire a tout bonnement décidé cette semaine d'inonder les tunnels de contrebande permettant aux Palestiniens de contourner le blocus imposé par Israël depuis 2007. Près de 30 % de la nourriture destinée à l'enclave palestinienne transite par ce réseau souterrain développé, ainsi que des armes sophistiquées. "Nous nous servons de l'eau pour fermer les tunnels", a indiqué mercredi à Reuters un membre de la sécurité égyptienne au Sinaï, désert qui borde la frontière avec Gaza, précisant que l'opération avait débuté cinq jours plus tôt. Une opération qui tranche avec le rapprochement affiché jusqu'ici par Le Caire en direction de ses "cousins" de Gaza. (Armen Arefi/Le Point) Plus : http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/l-egypte-s-attaque-aux-tunnels-de-gaza-15-02-2013-1627894_24.php
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