The sources said only about 10 percent of the 1,500 tunnels that link
the Gaza Strip to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula were operating, Middle East Newsline reported. They said Gazans
preferred the cheaper and better-made products from Israel rather than from
Egypt.
As a result, Hamas has suspended shipments of Israeli diesel fuel to the
Gaza Strip. Until this year, Israel had been supplying 100,000 liters of diesel
to operate the electricity generation station in Gaza.
"Hamas prefers to smuggle the fuel from Sinai because it supports the
tunnel operators close to the regime and, of course, it's much cheaper than
from Israel," the source said.
The sources said Hamas wants to maintain the smuggling tunnels as a
source of revenue for the Islamic regime. They said Hamas receives fees from
each shipment from Sinai, believed to have increased amid the unrest in
Egypt.
Over the last week, at least eight Hamas operatives escaped Egyptian
prisons. One of them was
identified as Ayman Nofal, arrested in 2008 on charges of plotting bombing
attacks in Egypt, and who arrived in the Gaza Strip on Feb. 5.
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