Update: Court obliges Egypt to demolish Gaza tunnels

Tuesday 26-02-2013 07:18 PM
Update: Court obliges Egypt to demolish Gaza tunnels

A Palestinian smuggler waits for a cart containing gravel inside a smuggling tunnel dug beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip November 26, 2012. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

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A Cairo administrative court on Tuesday ruled that Egypt must demolish all illegal tunnels between itself and Gaza.

"According to the law, the state must control ports and areas of entry to and exit from its lands," the court headed by Judge Abdel Hamid al-Moqannen said.

The ruling is enforceable by all state institutions especially the ministries of interior and defence, a judicial source told Aswat Masriya.

Ex-MP Hamdi al-Fakharani had filed a lawsuit to demand obliging President Mohamed Mursi to demolish all tunnels, 450 main tunnel and 750 sub-tunnels, between Sinai and Gaza.

The campaign Egypt launched months ago to seal off smuggling tunnels between its land and the Gaza Strip causes thousands of Palestinians to lose their means of subsistence.

The underground network of tunnels is a lifeline to Gaza through which around 30 percent of the goods that reach the strip are smuggled.

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