Hamas effectively closed the smuggling tunnels from Egypt. No-one is sure why yet. Happened yesterday. ‘Stop using them or else’ was the order. Egypt has half completed the steel barrier which is already causing disruption to supplies. It’s very strange that the UN have not publicly rebuked Egypt for cutting off this lifeline. Maybe they are only interested in the legal crossings not the illegal ones. Maybe they just like to single out Israel. The blockade, so called, has caused the tunnel smuggling, so the story goes, and without it Gazans would starve. So that means Hamas has decided to starve Gaza and is actually working with Egypt and Israel to starve Gazans, because as we ‘know’, according to John Ging head of UNWRA in Gaza, it’s a ‘siege’, a mediaeval one, in fact.
So where is Ging? Where is the UN Secretary General? Where is Mahmoud Abbas? Why are they not crying out for the lifeline tunnels to be reopened? Simple. Because they all know that enough food gets in without them. They all know that no-one is starving in Gaza, but it makes a nice story to bash Israel with.
Like I’ve said before, it’s no picnic in Gaza, but no-one is starving either. Food and fuel gets through and all from Israel, not Egypt.
Rumour has it that the tunnels were closed because of a possible kidnapping in the Sinai of an Israeli tourist who would then be taken into Gaza through a tunnel.
So Hamas do not want a kidnapped Israeli, or I should say, another kidnapped Israeli. Why not?
And no-one has really worked out the affect of Egypt blocking these tunnels either.
One good thing to note: the BBC News website now finally admits that the ‘blockade’ is administered by Israel AND Egypt. But no-one cares about this. As the psalmist said: they have eyes but cannot see. Or don’t want to.