adminEgyptian military has demolished 20 more tunnels between the country and the besieged Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli blockade for the several past years. The Gazans have been using the tunnels to bring in basic needs into the besiege enclave. The Egyptian army said on its official Facebook page yesterday that the underground tunnels along the border with the Gaza Strip had been found and destroyed in November.
The military did not provide any further details.
This comes as dozens of people, mostly Palestinians, have lost their lives during the destruction of tunnels which has intensified since the 2013 ouster of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
Israel and the Egyptian military have launched a campaign to destroy the tunnels, preventing the people in Gaza from bringing in most of their basic goods like construction materials, food, and fuel into the coastal enclave. Tunnels are the only lifeline for Palestinians living under the Israeli siege and Egypt has so far laid waste to hundreds of them.
A report by the World Food Programme (WFP) in February 2014 revealed that the tunnels represented “the main supply and commercial trade route for goods into Gaza” since 2007.
The WFP report added that the “closure of the tunnels by Egypt hampers the few remaining drivers of economic growth in the Gaza strip.”
Gaza has been blockaded by the Israeli regime since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty. Egypt has also imposed a siege of its own on Gaza.
Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military says its aircraft struck a Hamas target in the Gaza Strip in response to two shooting incidents.
The statement says the aircraft hit a military post belonging to the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. No injuries were immediately reported in Monday’s strike.
The military says shots fired from Gaza hit Israeli army vehicles along the border on two separate occasions over the weekend.
The border with Gaza has remained mostly quiet during a nearly three month-long wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
“However, several Palestinians have been killed in violent clashes along the frontier and some rockets have been launched at Israel.
Israel fought a 50-day war against Hamas last year, which killed more than 2,200 Palestinians. On the Israeli side, 73 people were killed.— AP.
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