Egypt building an iron wall on its border with Gaza

Haaretz reports: "Egypt has begun the construction of a massive iron wall along its border with the Gaza Strip, in a bid to shut down smuggling tunnels into the territory. The wall will be nine to 10 kilometers long, and will go 20 to 30 meters into the ground, Egyptian sources said. It will be impossible to cut or melt."

Egypt already has its methods of smuggling prevention: "Egyptian forces demolish tunnels or fill them with gas almost every week, often with people still inside them, and Palestinian casualties in the tunnels have been steadily rising."

Despite this, smuggling continues to flourish. Hence the need for the wall, which will be made of enormous slates of steel.

I trust Palestinian solidarity activists will be making their way forthwith to the Egyptian side of the Gaza border in order to express their outrage, and I look forward to reading opinion pieces on the proposed wall by the usual suspects, along the lines of what they normally write from this side of the fence.