Egypt’s renewed crackdown on border tunnels making life difficult for Gazans
Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:0PM
Egypt’s new campaign to close tunnels on the border with Gaza is making life extremely difficult for the residents in the coastal enclave. Gazans say the campaign is causing severe gasoline shortages for ordinary people there. Ashraf Shannon has the details in this reportEgypt's renewed crackdown on tunnels on its border with Gaza is causing a severe shortage in gasoline in the coastal enclave. People in the Gaza strip are now going through a lot of difficulty to secure fuel for their motor vehicles. Most gas stations in this tiny coastal enclave are either closed or partially operating. Motorists can be seen waiting many hours for their turn to reach the pump and fill their cars Long hours of power outages have also forced people young and old to queue for long hours to fill canisters of gasoline to use in their small electrical generators. Fuel importers blamed the lack of fuel on the unstable security situation on the Egyptian side of the border. People in the Gaza Strip have been grappling with fuel and power shortages and this new situation is not making their lives any easier. Tunnels have for long been considered as a life -line for Gazans who have been under a choking Israeli blockade for several years. With the renewed restrictions on fuel supplies some Palestinians in Gaza say they feel abandoned by their Egyptian neighbors. Gazans have been struggling under the Israeli blockade for several years, now people here say that the Egyptian crackdown on tunnels will only make things worse.