Egypt Pumps Toxic Gas Into Tunnel On Gaza Border, Three Palestinians Killed

Underground tunnel illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/IDF Spokesperson's Unit photographer)

JAKARTA - The Egyptian authorities have again carried out 'cleaning' of tunnels commonly used by Palestinians on the border of the two countries, with the death toll from Egypt's action this time.

Citing Opindia September 3, at least three Palestinians were killed in a tunnel used for smuggling activities, after the Egyptian army pumped poison gas into the tunnel, Palestinian and Israeli media said.

The tunnel, which was targeted by the Egyptian army, stretches from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt to the Gaza Strip, under the Philadelphi Corridor. The victims in the incident were workers working in the tunnels. Sources in Gaza said they had lost contact with workers in the tunnels.

Residents use the tunnels to smuggle food, fuel, weapons and ammunition into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

This is not the first time such an attack has been carried out. In 2019, two Palestinians were killed and several others injured after Egyptian forces pumped toxic smoke into a smuggling tunnel that runs to the Sinai Peninsula from the Gaza Strip. In February 2017, three Palestinians died in a tunnel between Gaza and Sinai under the same circumstances.

Egypt has destroyed more than 3,000 tunnels along its border with the Gaza Strip in the past six years, Egyptian Army spokesman Tamer Al-Refai said in 2020.

"In 2015, the (Egypt) government took the decision to establish a buffer zone along the border (with the Gaza Strip)", he said quoted by The Jerusalem Post September 3.

He added that these tunnels were used to threaten Egypt's national security, including terrorist infiltration, smuggling of weapons, ammunition, goods, narcotics drugs and vehicles.

"We are establishing a buffer zone in stages, because residents have to be relocated. They have received compensation", he explained in an interview given to the Egyptian news channel Extra News in 2020.

To note, Hamas has an extensive network of tunnels along the borders of the Gaza Strip, known as the 'Hamas Metro'. During 11 days of armed clashes in May, Israel had bombed several tunnels on the Israel-Gaza border in retaliation for rocket bombings in Israel by Hamas.