Egypt Building the Wall to Complete Blockade of Gaza Strip

 

Jan. 07, 10 (Iran Daily) - Protests Against ‘Wall of Death’ Egyptian forces shot and wounded dozens of Palestinians on Wednesday during a violent protest on the Egypt-Gaza border against an underground steel wall Egypt is building to block smuggling tunnels, medical officials said.

The shooting erupted after scores of Palestinian protesters hurled rocks at the soldiers, witnesses and medical officials said, Reuters reported.
Egyptian and Palestinian security officers fired shots into the air in an attempt to move the protesting Palestinians away from the border.
Al-Jazeera reported that several ambulances have left the scene carrying injured Palestinians.

The incidents took place following a demonstration called by the Hamas rulers of Gaza to protest Egypt's construction of an underground barrier meant to stop smuggling through cross-border tunnels.
Hundreds of demonstrators held up green Hamas flags and chanted "God is great."

Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas fighters. An Israeli military officer, who is briefed on Gaza intelligence, told Reuters last week the Egyptian wall could significantly stem Palestinian goods smuggling into the territory once it is completed in several months.

Cairo has played down the scope of the dig on the 14-km (8-mile)-long border. Hamas calls the obstacle a "wall of death" that could smother tunnels that also provide Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with a wide range of commercial goods.

Egyptian officials have said steel tubes were being placed at several points along the frontier to form a barrier, but have not elaborated on its purpose.
Tunnel-builders say some 3,000 of the underground passages were operational before Israel launched a three-week Gaza offensive a year ago, but only 150 were still functional following the conflict and subsequent Israeli air raids.

Egyptian Police Killed

Meanwhile, Egyptian state television said that gunfire from the Gaza Strip killed an Egyptian border guard on Wednesday. "Egyptian policeman dead after Palestinian fire in border zone," read the ticker on the television.
The 21-year-old officer succumbed to his wounds in hospital in the divided border town of Rafah, a security official said.

Attack on Relief Convoy

At the same time, Egyptian security forces clashed with members of a convoy led by left-wing British politician George Galloway trying to take relief supplies to Palestinians in the Gaza strip. A Reuters correspondent in the port city of Arish, 40 km (25 miles) from Egypt’s border with Gaza, saw security forces throwing stones at about 520 people travelling with the convoy.

The convoy has been locked in a dispute with Egyptian authorities over the route of the 198 trucks. Police used water cannon to force the protesters to leave Arish harbour, which they had occupied, a security source said. Around 40 members of the convoy had minor injuries while around 15 police officials were hurt, witnesses said.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry said protesters had broken a gate into the port complex, while others scaled its walls. Some of the protesters “lit cardboard boxes and prevented firemen from reaching them and moved cars from the convoy to block the port gate”, the ministry said in a statement published by Egypt’s official news agency MENA.

The activists struck a deal with police to trade four police officers who had been held by the protesters for a few hours in exchange for seven members of the convoy detained by police. Cairo insists the food and other supplies should go to Gaza via an Israeli-controlled checkpoint while the convoy’s leaders want to use the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing.

Egyptian authorities wanted 55 of the trucks to go to the Israeli checkpoint, said Galloway, the sole member of the British parliament for the Respect party, who has long campaigned for the Palestinian cause. “We refused this,” he told Reuters TV. “It is completely unconscionable that 25 percent of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza. Because nothing that ever goes to Israel ever arrives in Gaza.”

Cairo has imposed strict regulations and restrictions on pro-Palestinian foreign activists who have held protests in Egypt since late December to mark the first anniversary of Israel’s three-week offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. It has also controlled the movement of Palestinians and some foreigners at Rafah and is building the controversial steel wall along its border with Gaza to prevent smuggling.

Turkish Appeal

Following violent clashes in El-Arish, Turkey’s foreign minister telephoned his Egyptian counterpart and asked him to release members of aid convoy. In Istanbul, thousands protested outside the Egyptian Consulate and accused President Hosni Mubarak of betrayal, Ynet reported. Ahmet Davutoglu telephoned Ahmed Aboul Gheit several times Tuesday night and urged him to release members of an aid convoy blocked at El-Arish following violent clashes.

About 55 people were injured late Tuesday in clashes between Egyptian police and pro-Palestinian activists trying to get a relief convoy into the Gaza Strip, militants and medics said.