Egypt destroys 12 Gaza tunnels

The Egyptian army announced on Monday evening that it had discovered and destroyed 12 tunnels on the border with the Gaza Strip. A number of Palestinian “infiltrators” were also arrested, Anadolu has reported.

Since the ouster of the first freely-elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, the military regime in Cairo has stepped up its crackdown on the tunnels, which have been described elsewhere as a “lifeline” for the besieged Palestinians in Gaza. The Egyptian army claims that the tunnels are being used by militants carrying out attacks in Sinai.

Egypt has established a 2 km-wide buffer zone with Gaza since October 2014, and has recently started to flood the area with sea water in order to capsize tunnels.