Tunnel closings cause Israeli goods to disappear from Egyptian markets!

The tunnel trade between Egypt and Gaza was two-way.

El Arish market

But Gazans weren't exporting their own goods to Egypt - they were exporting Israeli products. You know, the ones that were allowed in despite the "siege."

Egypt's Al Ahram reports that ever since the Egyptian army has cracked down on smuggling tunnels, Israeli products are no longer on the shelves of towns in the Sinai.

The shortages of Israeli goods is felt mostly in El Arish, Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah.

The Israeli products that were smuggled from Gaza include clothes, foodstuffs, cosmetics and electrical appliances.

This means, of course, that Gaza had a surplus of Israeli goods, not a shortage!

It also shows that there is a demand for Israeli goods in Egypt, and the reason that more Egyptians aren't legally importing Israeli goods is politics, not profits.

In 2012, an Egyptian TV program claimed that Israeli goods found in the Sinai, such as chocolate, coffee, biscuits and yogurt, were causing infertility. One interviewee claimed that Israeli jeans had secret magnets hidden within them that also cause infertility. Now we can see that the goods shown on TV were all from Gaza smuggling tunnels, not from regular trade between Israel and Egypt.