Egypt destroys tunnel under Gaza border in bid to curb smuggling

Egyptian security forces on Sunday destroyed a large tunnel under the country's border with the Gaza Strip that smugglers had used to get cars into the territory, police said.

The tunnel near the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Egypt, the Gaza Strip and Israel was destroyed after Israel carried out air strikes near the Egypt-Gaza border in a bid to curb the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, Egyptian authorities said.

A lucrative smuggling trade in basic commodities, drugs, weapons and even cars and motorcycles has grown along the border since Israel and Egypt imposed an embargo on the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian Hamas movement took over the security forces in the Strip in 2007.

Anonymous security sources last week told the Egyptian daily al-Shorouq that Egypt had almost completed a reinforced, underground steel wall along the border.

However, police said the tunnel destroyed Sunday was in an area where the underground barrier has not been started yet.

Relations between Egypt and Hamas deteriorated after news of the planned barrier was first leaked to the press late last year. Hamas officials have protested against the reported wall in interviews with regional media.

Ties between Cairo and Hamas were further stressed when an Egyptian border guard was shot dead in clashes with Gazans protesting against the wall and the Strip's continued blockade by Israel. Egyptian and Gazan authorities accused each other of being responsible for the shooting.

In related news, police said that Egyptian security guards arrested three Gaza fishermen after they ventured into Egyptian territorial waters, the fourth such arrests in two months.

Israel has also closed the Gaza Strip's Mediterranean coastline out of fear weapons could be brought into the territory by sea, leading some Gazan fishermen to risk fishing in Egyptian territorial waters.