CAIRO: On Wednesday, Egyptian security forces destroyed a smuggling tunnel underneath the Egypt-Gaza border, wounding at least four Palestinians who were inside the tunnel at the time of detonation, medical sources reported. The wounded have been taken to a local hospital in Rafah, where they are being treated for their injuries. According to eye-witnesses, the explosion left a number of homes in the al-Brazil neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip damaged as a result. Egyptian security sources revealed they had discovered at least 10 tunnels along the border zone that splits the two Rafah's, one in Egypt and one in Gaza, the same day. They have said they intend to detonate more explosives to close the remaining tunnels in an effort to stem the flow of goods to and from the Palestinian territory. Since June 2007, the 1.5 million Palestinians have been living under an economic blockade in place by Israeli and Egyptian pressure. The Jewish state has been pushing Egypt to do more to halt the movement of goods into Gaza, arguing that weapons are being smuggled into and used against Israeli targets from Gaza. Egypt is nearing completion of a massive steel wall that goes 20 meters beneath the earth in an effort to curtail smuggling, but Palestinians have said they will simply go deeper and that a number of tunnels are not being affected by the barrier. BM
