The Egyptian army had destroyed 37 cross-border tunnels linking the besieged Gaza Strip and to the country’s Sinai Peninsula in 2018, the army announced yesterday.
“The Egyptian army has 37 hidden tunnels in northern Sinai during 2018,” the military said in a statement.
The army added that it had also “thwarted attempts of illegal infiltrations by 18,965 people of various nationalities throughout 2018.”
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Egypt shuts the Rafah crossing – Gaza’s only connection to the outside world – most of the year.
Since September 2015, the Egyptian military cracking down on Gaza’s cross-border tunnel network. It has been carrying out operations in the north of Sinai against what it describes as “gunmen targeting security and military headquarters.”
By virtue of its location on the Mediterranean Sea off the European continent, Egypt is a transit country for irregular migration to a number of European countries, particularly Greece, Italy and France.