Egyptian army destroys 69 tunnels along Gaza border

I24news

The Egyptian army has destroyed the entry points to 69 tunnels along the border with Gaza, Mohamed Samir, an Egyptian army spokesman said Saturday.

The army has intensified efforts to destroy such underground tunnels connecting the restive Sinai Peninsula to the Palestinian Gaza Strip, since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

After a major attack in October, the Egyptian military began clearing a buffer zone along the border with Gaza in an attempt to stamp out a cross-border network of tunnels, which Hamas considers as a lifeline, to prevent the infiltration of militants, and smuggling of goods and weapons.

The army says it has already destroyed more than 1,600 of them.

Last week, Egyptian security officials said they found a 2.5-kilometer smuggling tunnel leading into the Gaza Strip, the longest such passageway discovered.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also issued a decree last Sunday making the digging or use of illegal tunnels in border areas punishable by life in jail.

“Anyone who digs or prepares or uses a road, a passage, or an underground tunnel in the country’s border areas with the purpose of connecting with a foreign entity or state, its citizens or residents… will face life in prison,” said the decree published in the official gazette.

Egyptian authorities accuse militants of the Palestinian movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, of using the tunnels to infiltrate the country in a bid to aid jihadists who have killed scores of security personnel in slew of attacks. The Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist group has spearheaded attacks against security forces in North Sinai.”