Five ways Egypt's closure of Rafah hurts Hamas

Pan-Arab paper Al Hayat describes five different ways that Egypt's closure of Rafah, which for some reason is never called a "siege," is significantly hurting Hamas:

1. Loss of tax revenue. Hamas taxed all the goods coming from the tunnels, but the PA taxes the goods that come in from Israel. Hamas was receiving some $12 million in revenues every month from taxing smuggled goods. As a result of the closure, Hamas has cut paychecks and delayed payments to its 40,000 employees in Gaza.

2. Higher prices. Goods that come from Israel are at market prices, while many of those that come from Egypt are subsidized by the Egyptian government. Construction material in particular have doubled in price and Gaza's Federation of Contractors has called to stop all work for its 60,000 members until prices stabilize. Fuel prices as well have gone up to what Israelis are paying.

3. The end of cash being smuggled to Hamas. Banks refuse to transfer money to Gaza out of fear of running afoul of anti-terrorism laws, and Hamas had received a significant part of its cash from people smuggling cash through the tunnels (from Iran and elsewhere.) This has all but ended.

4. Weapons smuggling has gone way down. Hamas as well as Islamic Jihad depended on the smuggling trade from Sinai jihadists and middlemen to get their weapons and ammunition, and Egypt is not going to look the other way any more.

5. Hamas leaders cannot easily travel any more. Only last year Hamas leaders were touring Arab nations, asking for money and acting like heads of state. That seems to have largely ended.

According to the article, Hamas doesn't see any way out of this predicament right now, so it has decided to tolerate it until the political situation changes. But meanwhile Hamas is saying that Fatah no longer wants to talk to them since the hope is that an internal uprising in Gaza is coming soon.