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Egypt Steps Up Gaza Role
(AP-Washington Post) Fares Akram - Egyptian flags and billboards praising President el-Sissi have sprung up across Gaza as Egypt has sent crews to clear rubble and is promising to build vast new apartment complexes. "Gaza is a reminder to everybody, effectively, that you can't really do anything without Egypt," said Hafsa Halawa, an expert on Egypt at the Middle East Institute in Washington. Egypt is now subsidizing the construction of three towns that are to house 300,000 residents, according to Naji Sarhan, deputy director of the Hamas-run Housing Ministry. The Egyptian presence is palpable. Nearly every week, Egyptian delegations visit Gaza to inspect the work. Egyptian flags and banners of Egyptian companies flutter atop bulldozers, trucks and utility poles. Dozens of Egyptian workers sleep at a makeshift hostel in a Gaza City school. Five days a week, Egyptian trucks filled with construction materials flow into Gaza through the Rafah crossing. The growing Egyptian role gives Cairo a powerful tool to enforce Hamas' compliance with the truce with Israel. It can close Rafah whenever it wants. Israel's current government has taken steps to improve living conditions, including issuing 10,000 permits for Gazans to work inside Israel.