Maariv: Egypt establishing a security belt to stop goods being smuggled in to Gaza

The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Egypt will establish a security belt throughout Salah El-Din Street after the Egyptian army bombed more than 10 houses and destroyed lots of tunnels in the area used for smuggling.

The newspaper added that Egypt plans to split the Egyptian part of Rafah from the Palestinian part. It also noted that the Egyptian security forces destroyed at least 10 smuggling tunnels in Al-Sarsouriya, Salah El-Din, Al-Barahma and Al-Hilwat.

According to Palestinian sources, the Egyptian authorities are also getting ready to destroy tens of homes under the pretext that they were used for smuggling through tunnels.

The newspaper pointed out that the city of Rafah was divided between Egypt and Israel 32 years ago and then it was divided between Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. After Hamas rose to power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, the Palestinian movement took control over the city and the border crossings with the Egyptian part of the city.

Maariv added that the Egyptian armed forces launched major military operations against the militants in Sinai in the beginning of September 2013, which is considered the largest military campaign in the region since the 1973. The operation was triggered by the instability in the Sinai Peninsula and sabotage operations carried out in the region on a daily basis. Egypt alleges that many of these operations are linked to Hamas.

The newspaper pointed out that many of the terrorist operations have been implemented in the wake of the revolution that overthrew the former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood group. The group is considered the mother organisation of the Hamas movement.

It also pointed out that until last July, the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt provided the majority of goods that flowed into the Strip. Since last June, hundreds of trucks crossed Kerem Shalom daily. However, Israel fears that the Egyptian destruction of the tunnels might lead to the deterioration of the situation in Gaza, resulting in a humanitarian crisis.

It warned that tightening the noose around Hamas’s neck through the economic blockade would increase the Palestinian shelling of Israel, pointing out that the Islamic militant movement Al-Jihad fires a rocket or two on Tel Aviv every now and then. Maariv further reported that the responsibility for the majority of rockets fired in late 2013 and 2014 lies with members of organisations that are themselves “Salafis”. Such groups include extremists who want to return to the days of the Islamic Caliphate and are calling for wars and Jihad against those they consider infidels – including Jews, Christians and even Muslims who do not agree with their views.

The newspaper said that the majority of the Salafist-Jihadist fighters are located in the Sinai Peninsula as well as in the Gaza Strip where there are hundreds. The Egyptian army sees the Salafis in the Gaza Strip and Sinai as its number one enemy, while it views Hamas as the number two enemy, either because the Strip provides a safe haven for the these Salafis or because the organisation is biased for another enemy of the Egyptian regime – the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Maariv explained that Hamas was dealt a heavy blow through Egypt’s war on Salafis and as a result of the destruction of smuggling tunnels between Sinai and the Gaza Strip. This is a blow, Maariv added, at an economic and an educational level. Since the Israel Defence Force’s Operation Pillar of Defence, also known as Pillar of Cloud, which took place in November 2012, the Palestinian organisation has not succeeded in obtaining missiles smuggled from Libya or Iran through Sinai and it is currently relying on its own ability to produce missiles.