Word: gaza
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...Mubarak's security forces found themselves engaged in clashes with Palestinians demonstrating at the Gaza border against Egypt's enforcement of the Israeli blockade against the territory. Hamas, the Islamist party that governs Gaza and which is at odds with the Egyptian regime, had called the protest to pressure the Egyptians over their delay of a Gaza-bound aid convoy. Others came to demonstrate against Egypt's construction of an underground steel barrier meant to block off the smuggling tunnels that provide both a vital lifeline to Gaza's blockaded economy and a pipeline to resupply the arsenals of Hamas...
...perceived collusion of Mubarak with the Israeli effort to topple Hamas by choking the life out of Gaza's economy has fueled a political backlash. "We are, of course, calling for lifting the siege, and giving the Palestinians a normal life," says Essam al-Eryan, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group. "But the Israelis and Americans are pushing Egypt to secure the Israelis. And this is not our duty ... the Palestinians are no threat to Egypt...
...Hamas movement, and his failure to deliver significant gains for his years of negotiating with Israel and the U.S. has left his popularity at an all-time low. The Obama Administration has maintained its predecessor's boycott of Hamas and has declined to intervene meaningfully in the standoff in Gaza, where Israel maintains an economic stranglehold aimed at toppling Hamas. So despite his best intentions, Obama closed out 2009 in a situation not unlike that of Bush's valedictory year - pressing for talks between Israel and an increasingly marginal Abbas while wishing away the problem of Hamas. After a year...
...After last winter's war, Hamas has been able to use its Egyptian tunnel network to rearm itself with rockets, but that subterranean supply route may soon stop. Backed by U.S. funding and expertise, the Egyptians are pressing ahead with controversial plans to close off smugglers' burrows into Gaza by building a steel wall that runs 100 ft. (30 m) deep along its border. One noted Egyptian newspaper editor, Ibrahim Issa, dubbed it his country's "Wall of Shame...
...Egypt, with Washington's help, shuts down all the tunnels into Gaza, then it is not only Hamas that will suffer - the tunnels are the only lifeline for vital, everyday goods for all Gazans. So unless Netanyahu sees fit to ease the squeeze on Gaza after the prisoner swap for Shalit, the privations faced by Gaza's Palestinians are bound to get a lot worse...