Middle East News

At least one killed in fresh Gaza smuggling tunnel collapse

Jul 28, 2009, 9:22 GMT

Gaza City/Cairo - At least one Palestinian was killed and another injured when a tunnel under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed Monday, witnesses and medics said.

Witnesses said that Jamal Abu Samak, 32, died of suffocation when the tunnel, which linked the Gazan and Egyptian sides of the divided town of Rafah, collapsed on him.

Abu Samak had been deported from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip earlier this year, Rafah residents told the German Press Agency dpa.

Palestinian medics said that a second worker had been rescued with serious injuries, and that five others were still missing.

It was the second smuggling tunnel under the border to collapse this week.

Search and rescue teams on Monday afternoon completed a 24-hour hunt for survivors after an explosion caused by a fuel leak killed seven people.

The fatalities brought the number of those killed in accidents in the tunnels to 110 since Israel and Egypt blockaded the Gaza Strip after Hamas took power there in 2007.

Smugglers carry basic commodities, livestock, drugs and weapons through the tunnels.

Egypt has been under consistent international pressure, particularly from Israel and the United States, to stop smuggling across its border with the Gaza Strip.