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Security sources say that Egypt has determined that Palestinian smuggling continues despite the closure of some 150 tunnels. They said the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip was deploying some 50 tunnels to transfer arms, fuel and construction material.
“There have been efforts, but they have not ended smuggling,” a source said.
The sources said fuel shipments meant for the Sinai Peninsula were being diverted to the Gaza Strip, where they commanded higher prices. They acknowledged fuel shortages in such Sinai cities as El Arish and Rafah.
The Egyptian tunnel demolition began in wake of the Aug. 5 attack on army positions along the border with Israel, in which 16 soldiers were killed. Since then, the Egyptian Army has supervised bulldozers and tractors supplied by the state-owned Arab Contractors Co. to destroy tunnels that link the two sides of the divided city of Rafah.
Hamas has urged Egypt to halt the tunnel demolition. Hamas political leader Mahmoud Zahar said Egypt appeared intent to prevent the reopening or reconstruction of the tunnels.
“We suffered from the unjust regime of Mubarak that participated in the [Israeli] blockade of the Gaza Strip,” Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hamad said on Aug. 13. “Why should we suffer now in the era of Egypt’s revolution and democracy?”
Hamad urged Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to remove restrictions on the flow of people and goods to the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas minister called for the reopening of the Rafah border terminal, the only official crossing between Gaza and Sinai.
But the Egyptian sources said they expected the tunnel demolition to end over the next few days.
They said neither the Egyptian military or government wanted a confrontation with Hamas, rather assurances that Sinai would not be used for attacks by Gaza-based fighters.
On late Aug. 15, several explosions, purported to be those of rocket landings from Sinai, were heard around the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
Many of the Egyptian operations in Sinai have failed to find or strike insurgents. The sources said helicopters attacked long-abandoned insurgency positions or fired missiles toward empty areas.
“There is no intention for a sustained operation that would strategically hurt the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the source said. “Egypt has made its point and expects Hamas to behave accordingly.”
