Rocky sediments hamper Egypt’s iron wall along Gaza borders

Rocky sediments hamper Egypt’s iron wall along Gaza borders

 

“The sediments have indeed changed the geology of the soil where we are working and made it difficult for us to go ahead with the construction in the area that we believe is full of tunnels used by the Palestinians to bring food into the besieged Strip”, one of the project consultant engineers, who preferred to remain anonymous ascertained  in a statement to the PIC.

“The project management had decided to temporary suspend the work on the wall due to the heavy rains and flood that swept the area a few weeks ago, however when we decided to resume the work we were surprised  that hard sediments made it difficult for us to penetrate more than four meters”, confirmed the consultant.He added that the Egyptian government decided to form a team of Egyptian and foreign geologists to examine the problem and to find solutions before  continuing the construction work

The Palestinian people said that the wall, once completed, would suffocate the Gaza Strip where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are living after the Israeli occupation sealed off all crossing points of Gaza from the north and the east while Egypt closed the Rafah crossing point from the south.

In the same context, tens of Egyptian activists and syndicate members organized a sit-in in front of the journalists syndicate to protest the siege on Gaza and the construction of the iron wall. The activists held placards demanding the immediate halt of the construction; they also urged the Egyptian authorities to release Majdi Hussein, the Egyptian journalist who was sentenced to a two-year imprisonment term for entering the Gaza Strip through tunnels to show solidarity with the people of Gaza.

Activists chanted slogans calling on the  the Egyptian authorities to stop exporting gas to the Israeli occupation and to prioritize the Egyptian people with the gas. Large numbers of Egyptian citizens were seen standing in long lines waiting to buy a cylinder of gas for cooking.

Abdul Aziz Al-Husseini, one of the demonstrators, said that most of the public opinion surveys held around the iron wall showed that the great majority of the Egyptian people were against the construction of the wall, he added so “in whose interest is the Egyptian government going ahead with the construction of the wall?”.