RAFAH/Palestine: An Egyptian security crackdown has severely disrupted supply line to the neighboring Gaza Strip, causing a fuel shortage, doubling the price of building materials and shutting down some construction sites in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Egypt’s military clamped down on the lawless Sinai Peninsula, which abuts Gaza, in the run-up to mass protests planned for tomorrow by Egyptian opposition activists.

It’s not clear if the Sinai lockdown is temporary or signals a tougher security regime aimed at restricting smuggling through tunnels running under the Egypt-Gaza border in the long term. That would have a devastating effect on Gaza, which has relied on smugglers since Israel imposed a border blockade following the rise to power of Hamas in 2006.

The Sinai campaign began this month when Egypt’s military sent troop reinforcements and set up dozens of roadblocks across the sparsely populated stretch of desert that runs from the Suez Canal to the Gaza border. As a result, Egyptian trucks carrying cement, steel rods, fuel and other goods could no longer reach the Gaza tunnels.

“Nothing can get to the (tunnel) area,” said Abu Khaled, 44, a tunnel operator in Gaza. “We are like a dry lake now. ... We all pray that this will end soon.”

Gaza has only small reserves of cement, steel and other materials for private construction. With few exceptions, Israel bans such goods for fear Hamas will divert them for military use.

In response to the Sinai clampdown, the price of cement has doubled to $ 220 per ton, forcing some of the more than 200 private construction sites in the territory to shut down, contractors said. A shortage of cheap Egyptian fuel is forcing Gaza motorists to buy more expensive Israeli imports.