4 Palestinians killed as tunnel is flooded
GAZA: Palestinian Civil Defence workers recovered the bodies of four Palestinians between Saturday night and Sunday morning, after they went missing when a tunnel collapsed on them last week.
The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza said the tunnel collapsed after Egyptian authorities deliberately flooded it with seawater, launching an immediate search operation for four men who were reported missing.
The civil defence identified the men as Ali Badawi, 43, Muhammad Badawi, 21, Imad Badawi, 24, and Sami al-Tawil, 30, all residents of the Gaza Strip. However, some reports from Israeli media said only three bodies were recovered, while a fourth remained missing.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in tunnels connecting the besieged Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year.
In October, a Palestinian man died after being accidentally electrocuted inside a smuggling tunnel between Egypt and the southern besieged Gaza Strip.
Palestinians in Gaza have relied on underground smuggling across the Egyptian border since 2007, when Israel imposed a crippling military blockade on the coastal enclave after Hamas took control there.
Until the July 2013 ouster of Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi, tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt provided a vital lifeline for the small Palestinian territory.
Since Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi came to power, however, Egypt has strictly enforced the blockade and flooded hundreds of the tunnels. Ma’an