The Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels are smuggling tunnels that had been dug under the Philadelphi Route along the Egypt–Gaza border. They were dug to subvert the blockade of the Gaza Strip to smuggle in fuel, food, weapons and other goods into the Gaza Strip.

In November 2012, the IDF carried out a one-week operation that targeted 140 smuggling tunnels and 66 tunnels used for attacks, of the estimated 500 tunnels thought to exist at that time. [ 99 ] [ 100 ] By the end of the operation, the network of attack tunnels had been largely destroyed.

Oct 28, 2023 · The myriad tunnels under Gaza are best known as passageways used to smuggle goods from Egypt and launch attacks into Israel.

Jul 26, 2014 · In more recent times, Palestinians subverted Israeli controls over travel, imports and exports to and from the Gaza Strip by digging tunnels to south, into Egypt. Cars, cows, and cigarettes...

Oct 29, 2023 · An extensive labyrinth of tunnels built by Hamas stretches across the dense neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip, hiding militants, their missile arsenal and the over 200 hostages they now hold after an unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

May 31, 2024 · Military officials have estimated that most of the tunnels cross into Egyptian territory and were used to smuggle ammunition and materials for the production of weapons. A view of a cross-border...

Nov 10, 2023 · A maze of tunnels extends below the Gaza Strip, allowing Hamas fighters to stay out of sight and smuggle weapons and goods.

A worker emerges from one of hundreds of smuggling tunnels that connect the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Oct 25, 2023 · In 1994, an upward trend began in the number of smuggling tunnels for goods and munitions between Rafah in Egypt and Rafah in Gaza, which came under the control of the Palestinian Authority...

Jul 23, 2014 · With a land blockade on Gaza’s three sides enforced by Israel and Egypt, and a siege maintained by sea and in the air above its coastal strip, Gazans have found a way around their confinement...