Gunmen on Egypt-Gaza border
Photo: AP
Rafah: Two Palestinians killed in tunnel
Two men, together with four other Palestinians, dug tunnel from Gaza to Egypt. Since disengagement, Gaza security forces and their Egyptian counterparts uncovered over 10 tunnels underneath border
Two Palestinians were killed and four more were injured when an underground tunnel they attempted to dig between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed on them.
Palestinian police reported that they believed that the tunnel was dug during the previous night, and the bodies of the two Palestinians were found only on Saturday morning.,
The Associated Press was told by the Palestinian police that those killed were not from known families in Rafah like those known to smuggle food and drugs.
No weapons were found in the remains of the tunnel.
The digging of tunnels by the Palestinians – whether to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza and back, or whether to smuggle different products such as medicine or food – goes on in the border area even after Israel's withdrawal form the Gaza Strip and the Philadelphi Route.
Since the disengagement in September 2005, the Egyptians and Palestinians uncovered ten such tunnels, most of them designed to smuggle weapons.
Last month, Egyptian security officials found no less than 1.5 tons of home made TNT explosives on the border near Israel. Egyptian police hurried to place the explosives on trucks and remove them from the area.
Israeli security officials believe that the explosives were part of a 'package' making its way to Gaza. It is possible that some of the explosives have been transferred to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing or another route.
