![Egyptian soldiers keep guard on the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip September 3, 2013. Egyptian security forces have destroyed some 20 houses along the border with Gaza, local residents said on Tuesday, in what the Palestinian enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers fear is an effort to build a buffer zone to isolate them.
REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX135NK](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/09/1-RTX135NK.jpg/1-RTX135NK.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=KHb6GBFd)
Asmaa al-Ghoul is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Palestine Pulse and a journalist from the Rafah refugee camp based in Gaza.
![Egyptian soldiers keep guard on the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip September 3, 2013. Egyptian security forces have destroyed some 20 houses along the border with Gaza, local residents said on Tuesday, in what the Palestinian enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers fear is an effort to build a buffer zone to isolate them.
REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX135NK](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/09/1-RTX135NK.jpg/1-RTX135NK.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=KHb6GBFd)
![A man is silhouetted against a video screen with a Twitter and a Facebook logo as he poses with an Dell laptop in this photo illustration taken in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, August 14, 2013. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic (BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS) - RTX12L7W](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/09/RTX12L7W-001.jpg/RTX12L7W-001.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=G3AwUzuZ)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![Palestinians chant slogans while waving Syrian opposition and Egyptian flags during a rally in support of Egypt's deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the central Gaza Strip August 23, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX12U7U](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/09/Palestine%20Tamarod.jpg/Palestine%20Tamarod.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=3ONqSmwf)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A Palestinian tunnel worker uses his mobile as he rests inside a smuggling tunnel beneath the Gaza-Egypt border in the southern Gaza Strip July 19, 2013. The Islamist group Hamas appealed to Egypt's new rulers on Thursday not to pursue its destruction of smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip, warning they risked throttling the small Palestinian territory. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX11ROK](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/pal2.jpg/pal2.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=fWqD8rqd)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A Palestinian shouts slogans during a rally marking the 12th anniversary of the killing of Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in Gaza City August 27, 2013. Abu Mustafa was killed in an Israeli missile attack in Ramallah in 2001. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ANNIVERSARY) - RTX12Y2J](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/1-RTX12Y2J.jpg/1-RTX12Y2J.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=C-qVNW0z)
![Asmaa al-Ghoul](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/2016/asmaaalghoul.jpg/asmaaalghoul.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=zoLMHrdv)
Asmaa al-Ghoul
![Protesters wear masks depicting army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi as they gather for a mass protest to support the army in Tahrir square in Cairo, July 26, 2013. The Egyptian army is detaining Mursi over accusations of kidnapping, killing soldiers and other charges, the state news agency said on Friday. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX12084](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/sisi.jpg/sisi.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=_B9mBk7Q)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![Palestinian men recite the Koran at al-Omari mosque in Gaza City, during the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, July 10, 2013. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: RELIGION SOCIETY) - RTX11ILU](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/Gaza%20mosque.jpg/Gaza%20mosque.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=7JehlYQQ)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A Palestinian salesperson holds Apple's new iPhone 5 at a mobile phone store in Gaza City October 16, 2012. Apple's new iPhone 5 is selling well in the Gaza Strip despite inflated prices, reaching the Palestinian enclave via smuggling tunnels even before high-tech hub Israel next door. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS SOCIETY TELECOMS) - RTR3970R](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/Palestine%20technology.jpg/Palestine%20technology.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=kSVJdWCw)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![Palestinians take part in a rally in support of Egypt's deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and in protest of the recent violence in Egypt, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 17, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX12P94](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/Gaza%20vigil.jpg/Gaza%20vigil.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=_Y5qHAe1)
![Asmaa al-Ghoul](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/2016/asmaaalghoul.jpg/asmaaalghoul.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=zoLMHrdv)
Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A Palestinian woman buys traditional fish eaten during Eid, ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, at a market in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 7, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: RELIGION ANNIVERSARY) - RTX12COG](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/Gaza%20Eid.jpg/Gaza%20Eid.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=l0YaMUWQ)
![Asmaa al-Ghoul](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/2016/asmaaalghoul.jpg/asmaaalghoul.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=zoLMHrdv)
Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A worker lifts curtains in a theatre to reveal a picture of Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef for his comic show "Al-Bernameg" (The Programme), in Giza January 15, 2013. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS ENTERTAINMENT) - RTR3CI1L](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/Bassem%20Youssef.jpg/Bassem%20Youssef.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=K3GjC8Ho)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A Palestinian boy plays soccer as a mural depicts the Dome of the Rock and a map of British Mandate Palestine, on the gate of al-Sadaka club in Gaza City June 23, 2013. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX10YBI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/07/Gaza-youth-club.jpg/Gaza-youth-club.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=vLsqyT_Y)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul