Egypt continues its crippling siege on Gaza

Mohammed Abadleh, a spokesman for a Gaza petroleum consortium in the Gaza Strip, warned of a crisis in the Gaza Strip as Egypt is preventing the smuggling of diesel through the tunnels in Rafah.

Starting yesterday, Gaza fuel stations started rationing diesel to residents of the sector.

Egypt cracked down on smuggling tunnels again a few days ago after the attack by Sinai militants on an Israeli patrol at the border.

No word yet from "human rights" organizations about Egypt's "crippling siege" of Gaza.

As this is happening, Israel has been slowly increasing the number of trucks of materials being sent to Gaza. 324 trucks arrived yesterday along with 181 tons of fuel.

Meanwhile, the PA news agency WAFA published a working paper about building a free-trade zone between Gaza and Egypt that was supposedly prepared by Hamas. The introduction to the paper waxes poetic about the historic ties between Gaza and Egypt and how a free trade zone would benefit both sides.

The idea has been floating around for a few months, but I have not yet heard any positive response to it from Egypt.