Het route
The Het route or Khet route (Hebrew: ציר ה-ח', romanized: Tzir Ha-Het) is the name given by the Israeli security forces to a route used by terrorists and smugglers to penetrate into Israel along its southern border.[1][2] The route goes from Gaza, into the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, then back into Israel.[3][4] The name given to this route stems from the Hebrew letter Het which resembles the shape of the route.[5]
The route starts from the Gaza Strip, goes through secret Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels below the Philadelphi Route into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula,[4] and then south through the Sinai peninsula to a poorly-secured area of the Israeli–Egyptian border.[6]
In 2013–2014, under el–Sisi's regime, the Egyptians took steps to secure the border in the Gaza region in response to the Sinai terror attacks. These steps included the destruction of most of the 1,200 tunnels between Gaza and Sinai.[7] Also, in late 2013, Israel completed the construction of the Egypt–Israel barrier. This had the effect of significantly reducing cross-border insurgency and smuggling from Sinai into Israel.[8]
References[]
- ^ Israel–Egypt Border: No-Man's Land for al-Qaeda and Hamas (Hebrew)
- ^ Egyptian border incident: armed infiltrator killed (Hebrew)
- ^ Border Guard pursues smugglers in desert Ynetnews, 23 May 2006
- ^ a b The Israel Security Agency’s 2006 report International Intitute for Counter-Terrorism
- ^ Daniel Byman (2011) A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism p329
- ^ Samuel M. Katz (2016) The Ghost Warriors: Inside Israel's Undercover War Against Suicide Terrorism p249
- ^ Egypt bans Hamas activities in Egypt. Reuters. 4 March 2014
- ^ Lappin, Yaakov (15 January 2019). "Israel's border fence with Egypt has transformed the south". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- Terrorism in Israel
- Illegal immigration to Israel
- Smuggling routes