Egyptian army border guards recently discovered and destroyed 12 "new" tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border in the northern Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian security sources told Ma'an.
Egyptian security sources said that the army’s border guards destroyed the tunnels in cooperation with military engineering forces.
Last month, Egyptian authorities announced plans to fill a kilometer-long trench along the Gazan border with seawater to be used for fish farming,aimed at preventing the construction of smuggling tunnels between the border.
The trench, which is currently a kilometer long and 20-meters deep, will be expanded along the border, security sources had said.
They added at the time that military engineers had also planned to complete a water-pipe with a 20-inch diameter along the Gazan border in order to provide water to destroy smuggling tunnels as needed.
The idea of a moat along the Gaza-Egypt border has in the past been suggested several times by both Egyptian and Israeli authorities, who have together maintained a crippling blockade on the impoverished coastal enclave since 2007.
In 2004, as Israel prepared to withdraw from the territory, the Israeli Defense Ministry began inviting bids from contractors to work on a moat, although the plans were later dropped.
Tunnels have served as a lifeline to the outside world for Gaza's 1.8 million inhabitants since Israel began its military blockade in 2007.
While the tunnels are used by Hamas as a source of tax revenue and inflow of weapons, they also supply highly-demanded necessities for Gazans including food, medicine, as well as infrastructure materials including concrete and fuel.
Egypt has sought to destroy the tunnels as part of an ongoing security campaign in the northern Sinai against anti-regime militants launching attacks on Egyptian police and military personnel.
Egypt accuses Hamas of supporting the insurgents.
Hamas, which denies Egyptian accusations, has suffered poor relations with the Egyptian government ever since the democratically-elected Muslim Brotherhood, with whom they were closely allied, was thrown out of power in July 2013.
The Egyptian army has destroyed hundreds of smuggling tunnels since then, though new ones continue to be found.
