CAIRO: Egyptian border police destroyed four smuggling tunnels along Egypt's border with Gaza on Tuesday in a move to curb Gaza-Egypt tunnel traffic, local newspapers reported. The tunnels were discovered over the past two days in the districts of Salah Eddin and Barahma in Rafah. As Salah Eddin is a busy and highly populated area, the two tunnels were covered under rocks, and exploding them would have been too risky. The two other tunnels in the scarcely populated area of Barahma were exploded. Sources said Palestinian authorities were notified before the tunnels were destroyed to ensure that there were no people in the tunnels. According to the Gaza-based Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, around 200 people have been killed in the tunnels since 2006. Another 583 have been injured, according to the same center. A smuggling tunnel underneath the Egypt-Gaza border collapsed Tuesday morning last week, killing a young man from Khan Younis in Gaza. Medics in the Gaza Strip identified the man as 29-year-old Ahmad Rabee. He had been missing four hours after the tunnel collapsed in the Brazil neighborhood of Rafah before his body was found. In September, three Palestinians died and another four were injured in the tunnels when a butane gas cylinder exploded as it was smuggled through. An additional three youngsters were killed a couple of days later, as wastewater was pumped by Egyptian authorities into the tunnels and prompted them to collapse. Egyptian officials had said in early September that they intended to crackdown on the tunnels to end the smuggling and unauthorized travel of people. Israel exercises complete control over the only other border crossing out of Gaza, the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and the strip. This crossing is the only operating entry point for commercial goods and humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave, which is home to more than 1.6 million Palestinians. Israel had closed the Kerem Shalom crossing this Sunday due to the violent outbreaks in the area. The crossing was reopened Tuesday. Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing last April. However, the opening is limited and hardly usable, and the tunnels still serve as a lifeline for Palestinians to move people and goods. Building materials are especially diffictul to get hold of in the occupied strip. An Egyptian above-and-below-ground steel barrier erected with US assistance was meant to stem the flow of goods through the tunnels. But the overthrow of the dictator Hosni Mubarak in Egypt in February 2011 let the traffic through the tunnels increase slightly, observers said at the time. However, conditions might be tightening again, as Egyptian authorities recently adopted strict measures to curb the tunnel traffic. Israel only allows building material to enter Gaza via Israeli-controlled crossings for approved projects funded by international organizations and UN agencies. Building materials imported through the tunnels have been vital for rebuilding many mosques, schools and community centers. An average of 90,000 tons of cement, 90,000 tons of aggregate and 15,000 tons of steel bars are entering Gaza via tunnels each month, according to UN estimates. BM
