Egypt has for months moved to degrade Hamas’s infrastructure and weaponry. Cairo blamed Hamas for facilitating the movement of personnel and materials used by jihadist groups operating in the Sinai – groups which target both Egyptian and Israeli targets – and has sought to close off both the Palestinian terror group’s legal and illegal access to the outside world.

On Saturday Egyptian officials declared that the Rafah crossing, which connects the Egyptian-controlled Sinai Peninsula to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, would be closed indefinitely:

Egypt closed the Rafah crossing into Gaza on Saturday after it allowed Palestinians to return from the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. The crossing had been open for a week and an Egyptian source told the German Press Agency that the crossing would be closed indefinitely… Also on Saturday, Egyptian security forces continued operations in Sinai and arrested dozens of suspects and confiscated weapons, Egyptian officials told Ma’an News Agency. Raids took place in several villages in and around El-Arish.

Meanwhile Israel yesterday moved to degrade Hamas’s infrastructure after Palestinians fired on Israeli communities for two consecutive days.

On Sunday Palestinians targeted Israeli communities with mortars. On Monday morning they fired another two rockets. One of today’s rockets was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and anothre slammed into an open area in southern Israel.

The Israeli Air Force subsequently struck two underground rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip.

[Photo: U.S. Air Force / Wiki Commons]