One of the key points of the protests during the Gaza Freedom March was the role played by Egypt in sealing Gaza from the world. This Associated Press story provides some more details (a few friends who recently crossed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing tell me that it was impossible to determine the current development of the barrier):
On Monday, workers operated huge machines just behind the Egyptian border line, offering a rare glimpse at what the wall is made of.
A drill pierced holes in the soil, a crane lifted steel beams into position and a jackhammer drove them into the ground as several workers could be seen welding.
Egyptian troops in four armored personnel carriers with mounted machine guns guarded the crew. In the past, shots were fired several times from Gaza at the workers, though no one has been hurt.
Hamas guards watched from a nearby position, some shouting insults at an Egyptian soldier who poked his head out of his armored vehicle.
Hamas leaders are furious about the border wall and are seeking to rally Arab and Muslim public opinion against Egypt. On Sunday, demonstrators marched outside Egyptian embassies in Jordan and Lebanon, holding posters showing Egypt’s president with Israel’s Star of David on his forehead.
Hamas has also marshaled Muslim scholars who decreed that the barrier is ”haram,” or religiously forbidden. The scholars were responding to a statement by Al-Azhar University, Egypt’s prestigious Islamic seat of theology, which reached the opposite conclusion last week.