Gaza Pays 'Brutal' Price for Egypt's Military Assault in Sinai

Egypt’s Israel-backed week-long military assault in the Sinai is once again further cutting off Gaza from the rest of the world—deepening shortages of gasoline and other goods and stranding thousands of Palestinians at the border, including many seeking medical care.

“The 1.7 million residents of the Gaza Strip are under a brutal form of collective punishment meted out by Israel and Egypt, preventing freedom of movement and imports and exports of goods,” Josh Rubner of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation told Common Dreams.

Egyptian forces have bombed over 40 tunnels connecting Gaza with Egypt in the past two weeks, in addition to hundreds others that have been sealed off since the Egypt’s military-backed government took power. Hamas officials say there were approximately 600 tunnels before the takeover, and since late June 95 percent of the tunnels have been cut off.

These tunnels provide crucial conduits for nearly half of Gaza’s fuel needed to keep hospitals and schools open and generator-fueled electricity running, in a densely-populated area already in the grips of a water crisis. When tunnels are cut off, only Israeli gas is available to many and at a price that is prohibitively expensive in an area beset with high unemployment and poverty.