Egyptian officials have increased their efforts to clamp down on goods flowing in and out of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The Iran-backed terror organization is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and per The New York Times has been struggling since the Brotherhood-linked government of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi lost power last month:

Now, the dismantling of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood by the new military-backed government that ousted the Islamist president has Hamas reeling without crucial economic and diplomatic support. Over the past two weeks, a “crisis cell” of ministers has met daily.

The Egyptian army has subsequently shut down hundreds of smuggling tunnels running between the Gaza Strip and the Egypt-controlled Sinai Peninsula. The military blames Hamas for maintaining the tunnels, which security officials believe facilitate the transfer of jihadist operatives and personnel into the Sinai. The result has been a precipitous decline in the availability of Egyptian goods inside Gaza, to the point where shelves are increasingly filled with exclusively Israeli imports.

Nasser al-Helou, a Gazan merchant, told Al-Monitor that a lot of imports now come from Israel and the West Bank. “Most goods now enter through the official Karam Abu Salem crossing after the [smuggling] tunnels were destroyed. The import quantities, especially goods that we had trouble importing because of cheaper alternatives in Egypt, have increased since about June. … The goods that are the most in demand are milk, mineral water and cheese. But the consumers’ purchasing power is now weak because of the political situation.” He predicted that after mid-September, Gaza homes will have even more Israeli goods.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/08/israel-gaza-erez-karam-abu-salem-crossing.html#ixzz2dUlPnwM3

Egyptian forces today also shot two Palestinian fisherman and detained another five for penetrating Egyptian waters.

[Photo: proisraeli / Flickr]