WarSclerotic

“It is the right of the Egyptian state, and even its duty, its responsibility. It is the right of every state to control and protect its borders,” he added.

Khaled Meshaal, exiled leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement which has controlled Gaza since June 2007, recently called on Egypt to halt construction of the barrier.

Hamas tries to rally Arab and international public opinion against the barrier, calling it the “death wall.” Protests were staged at Egyptian embassies in Lebanon and Jordan this month.

Mubarak said Egypt has plenty of documented information” that “rhetoric campaigns” to attack his country were organized in “a sister country,” but would not bow down before “blackmail.”

“What we do not accept, and will not accept, is that we take our borders lightly, or that our territory is violated or that our soldiers or installations are targeted,” Mubarak said.

“We continue with the construction and reinforcements on our border, not to please anyone, but to protect our national security from violations and from terrorist acts such as those in Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab and Cairo,” he added.

A series of bombings from 2004 to 2006 killed a total of 130 people in Red Sea resorts on the Sinai peninsula and a 2009 bomb attack at a Cairo bazaar killed a French teenager.

Egyptian authorities started building the underground steel barrier in a bid they say to stop the smuggling of goods and weapons into the Gaza Strip via a network of underground tunnels, but officials have remained tightlipped about the details of the construction work.

Egypt has also been more vocal in its pressure on Hamas, which it accuses of refusing a reconciliation agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

Israel has sealed the Gaza Strip off to all but very limited supplies of basic goods ever since the Islamist group seized control in 2007, ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.