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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Egypt arrests a Gazan for blowing up gas line to Jordan

A week ago I noted that the gas pipeline from Egypt to Jordan had been bombed, and that this has happened just as often as it used to when the pipeline also went to Israel.

Which makes this story interesting:

Egyptian security officials arrested a Palestinian man late Friday in relation to a bomb blast which targeted a gas pipeline in Sinai last week, security officials said.

Mohamed Abu Hashem, 30, was detained in the Sinai peninsula while trying to return to the Gaza Strip, Egyptian officials said, and faces charges of blowing up a gas pipeline in north Sinai last Sunday.

Saboteurs blew up the pipeline, which supplied natural gas to Jordan, in two places.

One explosion shook the city of El-Arish, causing flames which could be seen from the distance, witnesses and security officials said.

A Jordanian government official confirmed that gas supplies to the energy-poor kingdom were cut.

"The gas supplies to Jordan stopped due to the attack," the official told state-run Petra news agency.

"The Egyptian authorities have informed us that they are currently evaluating the situation and the damage," he added without elaborating.

Egyptian gas covers 80 percent of electricity generation in Jordan, which imports 95 percent of its energy needs.
Why would Gazans want to disrupt gas to Jordan?

Are they being hired out as mercenaries by Islamists, knowing they can hide in Gaza?

Or perhaps hired by other Egyptians who are against subsidized gas deals with other countries while Egypt doesn't have enough for itself?

Perhaps the new anti-Hamas government in Egypt is using any Palestinian they can find as a scapegoat?

Or maybe terrorism is sometimes just a habit, and when Jewish targets aren't convenient then the terrorists turn to lower-hanging fruit?