Israel Matzav

Egypt to destroy Gaza smuggling tunnels?

Better late than never, Egypt is planning to destroy the Gaza smuggling tunnels.

Egyptian security forces were mapping the network of tunnels running between the Sinai peninsula and the Gaza Strip in preparation to destroy the smuggling tunnels, Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk quoted official sources as saying on Wednesday.

In addition, the security forces are tightening security at the Philadelphi Corridor, the line that separates Sinai and Gazan sides of the city of Rafah, in an attempt to bring the Sinai peninsula under tighter control.

Egypt has been in pursuit of elements believed to be connected with acts of sabotage in Sinai, notably, repeated attempts to blow up the pipeline which carries natural gas to both Jordan and Israel. In efforts to restrict the movement of these elements, Egypt has coordinated with Hamas to prevent infiltration across the border in either direction, according to the report. The report added that Egypt has made it clear to Hamas that any Palestinians caught infiltrating into Sinai will be handed over to Egyptian security authorities.

The Egyptian military has reinforced its security along the border with Israel in the aftermath of last week's multi-stage terror attack, emanating from Sinai, in which killed eight Israelis.

The day after the attack, a number of Egyptian security personnel were reportedly killed and wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi Corridor.

Israeli security officials said that the suicide bomber appeared to belong to the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), which was behind the well-planned multi-stage attack near Eilat. Egypt denied that the soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber and said that they were hit in an explosion caused by bombs that were planted along the border, likely by the terror cell.

Someone please remind me again why we rushed to apologize to Egypt for those deaths. Ah wait, those were Friday deaths, not Thursday's. We apologized for Thursday's deaths. But maybe it wasn't us after all?

In any event, I will be thrilled if Egypt actually shuts down the tunnels, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen even if the Egyptians have finally recognized that it's in their interest to shut them down.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Egyptian army, Eilat, Palestinian terrorism, Philadelphi corridor, smuggling tunnels

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:27 PM