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Thursday, February 12, 2009

Poor, motorcycle-deprived Gazans

Egypt just raided a farm used for smuggling in Rafah. From Al Quds:
A security official said Egyptian police on Thursday raided a farm near the Egyptian border with Gaza that used for dissassembling items as perparation for smuggling into the Gaza Strip. The official said that among the contraband were refrigerators and mobile phones, canned food and even motorcycles that were loaded in more than a hundred trucks and placed in a warehouse for storage. He said that these articles "have been prepared for the Gaza Strip."

The official in charge of the raid which took place Wednesday said, "It seems that the farm is a distribution point," adding that some of the goods carried posters with the names of wholesalers in Gaza.

Egypt is under pressure from Israel to stop smuggling across the Egyptian border with Gaza. Israel says the smugglers were using the network of tunnels linking the Gaza Strip and Egypt to smuggle weapons.

Last Wednesday, Egyptian police seized 30 trucks loaded with goods smuggled into the Gaza Strip and arrested the driver, a security official said. The smugglers of Gaza, the Egyptian authorities started to slow down their trade.
The poor, motorcycle-deprived Gazans!

It looks like the bribes that have lubricated the smugglers in Egypt are not quite as effective as they used to be.