Egyptian soldiers stand guard on the border with Gaza (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
Egypt reportedly began implementing its plan to flood the Hamas smuggling tunnels on the border with Sinai.
Egyptian army border guards recently discovered and subsequently destroyed 12 newly discovered underground smuggling tunnels across the Gaza-Egypt border in the northern Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian security sources told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency on Saturday.
Egyptian security sources said that the army’s border guards destroyed the tunnels in cooperation with military engineering forces.
Last month, Egyptian authorities announced plans to fill a kilometer-long trench along the Gaza border with seawater to be used for fish farming, aimed at preventing the construction of smuggling tunnels running under the border. According to a BBC, the Egyptians have begun implementing these plans.
The tunnels are used by the Hamas terror organization, which rules Gaza, for smuggling weapons and as a source of tax revenue. The tunnels also supply Gaza with anything from cigarettes to livestock and entire cars.
Egypt has sought to destroy the tunnels as part of an ongoing military campaign in the northern Sinai against anti-regime Islamic terrorists who, together with Hamas, have carried out several deadly attacks against Egypt’s security forces.
The Egyptian army has destroyed hundreds of smuggling tunnels as well as thousands of homes, and it evicted families from the border near Rafah, where it is creating a buffer zone with Gaza.
By: United with Israel Staff