Another 2 Palestinians killed in tunnel collapses in Gaza

Another two Palestinians have died while working in Hamas tunnels.

At least two Palestinians were killed in tunnels in the Gaza Strip on Monday.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, announced that a member of the terror group, Ahmad Asaad Shihada al-Barim, 22, was killed when a “resistance tunnel” collapsed.

While Hamas did not specify where the tunnel was located, the use of the term “resistance tunnel” generally indicates the territory between Gaza and Israel, Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

Separately, the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) said on Monday that a worker was killed when Egyptian military forces flooded a smuggling tunnel between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. PIC identified the victim as Mumin Abu Hamid.

Tens of Palestinian workers have been killed by collapsed tunnels. The IDF had warned the residents of Gaza that this occupation is hazardous.

Egyptian operations against the tunnels and possible Israeli involvement were indicated as likely causes for the collapses.

Hamas is reportedly having a difficult time contending with the repeated loss of the tunnels and the workers.

The terror organization is employing over 1,000 residents of Gaza in the digging of its cross-border tunnels and is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly in wages. Each digger receives $300-400 a month.

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Hamas has built a sophisticated network of tunnels in order to carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers and to smuggle goods and weapons in and out of Gaza through the Sinai Peninsula.

The IDF destroyed most of the tunnels during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, but Hamas has since been working vigorously to rebuild the network. The IDF has exposed several of them.

The Institute for Palestine Studies reported in 2012 that Hamas authorities had counted 160 deaths inside the tunnels since the Israeli blockade began in 2007, and in August 2014, Al-Jazeera reported that figure to be as high as 400.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

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