CAIRO: Egyptian army is in the process of digging a trench in the northern Sinai Peninsula near the border with Gaza in order to curtail smuggling, security sources told.
Egypt has already put in place a one-kilometer security buffer zone on its border with the Palestinian enclave in a bid to stave off militant attacks, which have sharply risen since the ousting of former President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
Security forces have regularly faced attacks from Islamist groups in the area, particularly from Sinai Province (formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis), which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
According to Reuters, the trench would be used to help detect tunnels used for smuggling and special passages had already been made for both vehicles and pedestrians to pass through it.
The U-shaped trench is located approximately two kilometers away from the border and will be 20 meters deep and 10 meters wide.
The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, the principal connection between the Strip’s 1.8 million residents and the outside world, has been mostly shut since 2013.
Israel imposed a blockade on the coastal enclave in 2007 following its takeover by the Islamist Hamas movement.
The situation in Gaza has deteriorated since Egypt, too, imposed a blockade on the strip beginning in 2013, cutting off the smuggling tunnels into northern Sinai that had been a lifeline for Gazans.
Egypt has been witnessing a growing wave of anti-security attacks that killed hundreds of army personnel and policemen since the ouster Morsi.
Egyptian authorities have accused Hamas of backing jihadists who have carried out deadly attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula that borders the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
