Coming to blows: Yet another way to destroy a tunnel is simply to blow it up. Here, on Nov. 1, 2007, an IDF troop stands at the edge of what was once an opening of a smuggling tunnel in Gaza. Israel isn’t unique in using explosives; so has Egypt. In late September, Egyptian forces blew up two tunnels, which resulted in five smugglers killed. Of 20,000 to 25,000 people involved in tunnel smuggling, at least 48 have died underground this year, often when the sandy tunnels simply collapsed, burying people alive.