CAIRO

Over the course of 2018, the Egyptian army has destroyed 37 cross-border tunnels linking the blockaded Gaza Strip to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the army announced Thursday.

In a statement, the army also said that 18,965 illegal immigrants -- of various nationalities -- had been detained over the same period.

Following Egypt’s 2013 military coup -- which saw the country’s first freely-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, ousted and imprisoned -- the Egyptian authorities began cracking down on Gaza’s cross-border tunnel network.

Cairo has attempted to justify the crackdown by pointing to an ongoing militant insurgency in Sinai, which erupted following the 2013 coup.