Egyptian authorities accelerating construction of steel wall

[ 07/04/2010 - 08:42 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)-- The Egyptian authorities have recently accelerated the construction work at the steel wall built under the border area between Egypt and Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security source said.

The well informed source told a Lebanese daily that a big portion of that wall was already completed under American-French supervision and that those authorities started ten days ago to build the section west of the Rafah crossing point that would eventually lead to the Barahma area known for its abundance with tunnels.

The tunnels are used by Palestinians in the Strip to smuggle badly needed goods and medicines to the besieged Strip.

Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar said on Tuesday that the Egyptian authorities had intensified border patrols and built new watchtowers along its borders with Gaza.

Meanwhile, an English-Language Israeli paper on Tuesday said that the Egyptian authorities tortured Palestinian children who took refuge in tunnels leading to Egypt during an Israeli aerial shelling of the area.

Jerusalem Post said that the Egyptian security men detained the 15-year-old Mohammed Al-Faramawi along with his friends who escaped to the Egyptian borders, adding that the boy was detained for thee days during which he was beaten with electricity wires and batons and forced to sleep on the floor without any covers or pillows.

Mohammed returned to his family after he was deemed a martyr in the Israeli shelling, the paper said.

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