Egypt destroys over 1,400 underground Gaza tunnels
Egypt has demolished nearly 1,430 underground tunnels between the country and the besieged Gaza Strip over the past 18 months, the Egyptian military says.
A total of 1,429 border tunnels, used by the Palestinian people in Gaza to bring in supplies to the besieged strip, were destroyed over the period.
The Egyptian army claimed on Sunday that the tunnels were "used by terrorists and criminals" to smuggle weapons to militants in the Sinai Peninsula.
However, a report by the World Food Program (WFP) in February 2014 revealed that the tunnels represented "the main supply and commercial trade route for goods into Gaza" since 2007.
The WFP report added that the "closure of the tunnels by Egypt in July 2013 hampers the few remaining drivers of economic growth in the Gaza strip."
Dozens of people, mostly Palestinians, have lost their lives during the destruction of tunnels which has intensified since the 2013 ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.
Some 1.8 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip are living in what is called the world's largest open-air prison as Israel retains full control of the airspace, territorial waters and border crossings of the territory.
The coastal strip has been under the Israeli air, sea and land blockade since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.
The World Bank reported last May that Israel's blockade has shaved around 50 percent off Gaza’s GDP adding unemployment in Gaza is the highest in the world at 43 percent.
It put the unemployment rate among the youth at an alarming point saying the figure soared to more than 60 percent by the end of 2014.
SF/NN/HRB
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