Middle East News
Seven injured in blaze in Gaza smuggling tunnel
Jan 16, 2010, 13:34 GMT
File pictures shows a Palestinian worker takes a break from work as he rests inside a smuggling tunnel on 31 December 2009 that runs from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip into Egypt. EPA/ABED RAHIM KHATIB
Gaza/Cairo - Seven suspected Palestinian smugglers were injured on Saturday in a fire in one of the illegal tunnels under the border between Gaza Strip and Egypt, medics and witnesses said.
Witnesses said the fire broke out in tunnel used to smuggle fuel after a fuel leak.
Rescue teams, firefighters and ambulances arrived at the scene and pulled out the seven casualties. They were admitted to hospital in the border town of Rafah, where medics said three were in a critical condition.
It is estimated that smugglers have dug more than 1,000 tunnels under the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip to smuggle goods and fuel since Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Hamas- ruled enclave three years ago.
According to Gaza rights groups, around 125 Palestinians have died and 590 have been injured in accidents that often involve the collapse of the crude, hand-dug tunnels.
Israel says Palestinian militants use the tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
Egypt, meanwhile, began last month began the construction of an steel underground barrier along the border with Gaza in a bid to stop the proliferation of tunnels. Egyptian forces also destroyed several of the tunnels.
The radical Palestinian Hamas movement, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, encourages the smuggling goods via the tunnels in defiance of the Israeli blockade. The group has slammed Egypt for building the barrier.
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