Egypt constructing separation wall along border with Gaza
Egypt has started constructing a concrete wall along its border with the besieged Gaza Strip, a security official from the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says.
The wall would stretch from Gaza's southeastern tip to the Rafah crossing, the sole crossing point between Egypt and the coastal enclave.
A Hamas security source told AFP on Wednesday that the goal was "to complete (the wall) as quickly as possible."
"The important thing for us is to control the border and prevent any illegal activity there," including any cross-border trafficking, the source added.
The report comes as a security delegation from Egypt led by General Ahmed Abdel Khalek, who is in charge of Palestinian affairs, visited Gaza on February 10 and met the Hamas leadership. It also made a field trip along the Egypt-Gaza border.
Last week, Mohammed Abu Harbeed, an expert on security affairs at the Interior Ministry in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, “The construction of this barrier was highly coordinated with Hamas and the Gaza Interior Ministry. It is designed to bring about better security on [both] sides of the border.”
The wall is being built parallel to an old rock barrier that includes an underground structure designed to curb smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.
Israel has restricted the movement of Palestinians in and out of the Gaza Strip since the early 1990s. Restrictions intensified in June 2007, when Tel Aviv imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza.
Nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza remain locked in and are prevented from having free access to the remainder of Palestine and the outside world. The blockade has also undermined the living conditions in the coastal enclave and fragmented its economic and social fabric.
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