Only ten percent of Gaza life-line tunnels still operating

Palestinian men stand behind a net where migrant quails are snared on the beach of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza Strip on September 25, 2012. Palestinians erect hundreds of meters of yellow silk nets along the coastline in the Gaza Strip to hunt migratory birds, mainly quails, which start arriving to the coasts of the Mediterranean in the second half of September of each year. AFP PHOTO/ SAID KHATIB

Just 10 percent of Gaza's smuggling tunnels to Egypt are still in operation after bearing the brunt of an Egyptian military crackdown in recent months, according to Ma'an news agency.

An August 5 militant attack on Egyptian policemen in the Sinai peninsula which killed 16 prompted the government to close most of Gaza's nearly 1,000 tunnels.

Authorities said they suspected the militants had been sneaking into Egypt from Gaza via the tunnels, which they had previously turned a blind eye to.

Tunnel owners said the tunnels have fallen under the sway of Egyptian and Palestinian authorities who insist on identifying people using the tunnels, and controlling the quality of goods passing through.

When security conditions permit, fuel and construction materials are allowed to freely pass into Gaza, a tunnel owner who called himself Mahmoud said.

Gaza's ministry of national economy said monthly imports of basic foodstuffs had fallen by 31 percent, and construction materials had declined byy 45 percent since the tunnel closures.

Israel's blockade on the Gaza strip, aided by Egypt's frequent closures of the Gaza-Egypt Rafah crossing, set off a humanitarian crisis in the strip, turning the tunnels into a veritable lifeline for its 1.7 million residents.

Eyewitnesses told Ma'an that Egyptian bulldozers remained on the Egyptian borders with the Gaza strip, and were continuing to destroy the tunnels.

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