After reading this story of how Hamas secretly worked for months to destroy the wall separating the Gaza strip from Egypt, I'm thinking that one of the motivations for destroying the wall was desperation for cigarettes and tobacco that had become scarce and expensive during the recent blockade:
Egyptian shopkeepers swiftly raised prices of milk, taxi rides and cigarettes, but that did not deter the Gazans, for many of whom it was their first trip out of the territory.
Some staggered back into Gaza carrying televisions, and others sported brand-new mobile phones. In Gaza City, prices of cigarettes - which had skyrocketed during the total blockade of the past week - fell by 70 per cent in a few hours.
Rami al-Shawwa, a 23-year old falafel vendor, said he planned to head to Egypt in the afternoon, after his brothers returned from there. He was going to buy waterpipe tobacco and just “smell some new air”.
“We have been living in darkness for days, and closure before,” he said, adding that he is not concerned about getting stuck in Egypt. “For my 23 years in Gaza, a year in Egypt will make up for it.”
(Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty)
The wall had already been sliced through before the explosions brought it down
In seriousness, it sounds as if many Palestinians were also desperate for freedom to travel outside the Gaza strip. Palestinians live in a self-imposed jail. Having again and again killed innocent Israeli citizens going about their business, Palestinians have forfeited their freedom to travel freely into Israel. Egypt has been no more welcoming. If Palestinians want their freedom to travel, there is only one way. They will need to resign themselves to the "horror" of living peaceably with their neighbors, be they Jewish, Muslim or Christian.
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