Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called on Egypt on Friday to stop building an underground wall along its border with Gaza, which the Islamist group says would put further strain on the isolated enclave. Egypt is constructing an underground barrier to stem Palestinian arms smuggling into Gaza and has played down the scope of the dig on the 14-km (8-mile)-long frontier.
Hamas calls the project a "wall of death" that could seal an Israeli-led blockade by smothering smuggler tunnels from the Egyptian Sinai peninsula. "We call on the Egyptian leadership to stop building the steel wall along its border with the Gaza Strip," Meshaal said at a conference bringing resistance groups together in Beirut.
Israel has long lobbied Egypt to tackle cross-border smuggling, which supplies Palestinians with both munitions and basic commercial goods lacking in Gaza. Egyptian officials have said steel tubes were being placed at several points along the frontier to form a barrier, but have not elaborated on their purpose.
The anti-smuggling wall sparked violence earlier this month when an Egyptian soldier was killed and four Palestinians were wounded in a gunbattle during a protest against the wall. Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade of the territory, which is ruled by Hamas Islamists who oppose international efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Israel imposed the blockade in 2006 after one of its soldiers was seized by militants who tunnelled under the Israel-Gaza border. It has been tightened since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.