"Siege " news: Cement prices in Gaza plummet

Gaza tunnel owners are complaining that the price of cement has plummeted, because of Israel allowing far more construction materials into Gaza in recent months.

The price per ton of cement has gone down to 370 shekels (roughly $103.) This is about the same price that cement costs in the US.

Israel has allowed organizations like UNRWA to import construction materials for projects in Gaza, in an attempt to ensure that Hamas doesn't use it to build weapons bunkers and tunnels to kidnap Israelis. As a result, there are more apartments available and the demand for homes and cement has gone down.

A tunnel owner said that the amount of cement he was smuggling dropped from 1500 tons a day to 500 tons  a day over the past several weeks. He said that tunnel jobs were disappearing.

Meanwhile, Egyptian police continue their very real siege of Gaza:

Hundreds of Palestinian travelers were stranded at Rafah crossing on Gaza's border on Saturday as Egyptian police refused to open the terminal, in protest over the kidnapping of their colleagues.

Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces closed the airport and seaport in el-Arish on Saturday, also in protest over the kidnapping of seven Egyptian police and soldiers on Thursday in Sinai.

Maher Abu Sabha, the general director of crossings and borders, said 800 Palestinians were stranded on the Egyptian side of the crossing on Saturday morning.

The number was expected to reach 1,000 by the end of the day. Most travelers are waiting for the crossing to reopen in hotels in el-Arish. They include sick people who had received medical treatment abroad, pilgrims and students who study abroad.

Egyptian police closed the gates of Rafah crossing on Friday after gunmen kidnapped seven Egyptian servicemen in an ambush in Sinai's Wadi al-Akhdar early Thursday.

Four of the captured men worked at Rafah crossing, sources at the terminal said.

Egyptian forces stepped up a campaign to close tunnels along the border amid concerns the captured servicemen would be smuggled into the Gaza Strip.

I still have yet to read any article describing this as a "siege" or "collective punishment" of Gazans.

UPDATE: Hamas is also blocking anyone from traveling through the tunnels under Rafah.