Gaza Strip Smuggling Tunnels - Measures Taken Against Tunnel Smuggling

Measures Taken Against Tunnel Smuggling

Israel, Egypt, the United States, and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries have pledged to stop or slow smuggling to Gaza by land and sea.

Although Israeli airstrikes rendered over 100 tunnels inoperative during the Gaza War, many of them were restored within a few weeks because the main damage was sustained at the openings, not in the middle sections.

Palestinians view the tunnels as a lifeline, enabling them access to a wide range of commercial goods during the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Between September 2000 and May 2004 ninety tunnel egresses leading to a few tunnels connecting Egypt and the Gaza Strip have been found and destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces. In May 2004 Israel launched Operation Rainbow, aimed partly at locating and destroying the tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border. During the 2008 Gaza War it was reported that of some 3,000 underground passages that were operational before Israeli offensive, only 150 were still functional following the conflict and subsequent Israeli air raids. In late 2009 Egypt started construction of a subterranean barrier in an attempt to curb the use of smuggling tunnels.

Some additional measures such as Egypt’s construction of an underground fence along its side of the Gaza-Egypt border have been taken. Nevertheless, antismuggling capabilities remain limited and constrained.

In 2011, Egypt began sealing a series of smugglers’ tunnels between its border and the Gaza Strip.