News / Palestine

Egypt flooded Gaza tunnels at Tel Aviv's request: Israeli minister

Sunday, 07 February 2016 9:26 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 07 February 2016 9:43 AM ]

Yuval Steinitz, Israeli minister for energy and water resources

An Israeli minister says Egyptian authorities have flooded the underground tunnels connecting the besieged Gaza Strip to the North African country at the request of the Tel Aviv regime.

Speaking at a seminar in Beersheba on Saturday, Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli minister of energy and water resources, said Cairo pumped water into the tunnels at the order of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency reported.

He added that “security coordination” between Cairo and Tel Aviv is at its best.

Gaza tunnels serve as the only lifeline for Palestinians to bring basic commodities like construction materials, food, and fuel into the besieged coastal enclave.

Israeli and the Egyptian army forces have launched a campaign to destroy the tunnels.

Dozens of people, mostly Palestinians, have lost their lives during the destruction process, which has intensified since Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi , was toppled in a July 2013 military coup led by Sisi.

A Palestinian climbs upward in a pier of one of the tunnels dug between the besieged Gaza Strip and the Egyptian border town of Rafah. ©Reuters

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

The Israeli regime denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs with proper wages as well as adequate healthcare and education.

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