Hamas in Gaza is running out of friends

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Emad the smuggler was covered in dust, watching buckets of cement and gravel emerge on a crude trolley from the bowels of his tunnel beneath the Egyptian border.

He is one of the few still doing this kind of work.

In the weeks since Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in a coup and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood were declared enemies of the state, Egypt’s military has shut down most of the tunnels that serve as a lifeline for Hamas, the Islamist political and militant organization that governs the Gaza Strip.

“The army now runs Egypt and the army hates Hamas,” said Emad, who declined to give his full name because the tunnels are, at least technically, illegal. “They could care less what happens to Gaza.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/hamas-in-gaza-is-running-out-of-friends/2013/08/24/7dd4560e-0b04-11e3-89fe-abb4a5067014_story.html