Palestinians Trapped in Gaza Tunnel Collapse

17/12/2004| IslamWeb

Five Palestinians may have been killed in a tunnel collapse in the southern Gaza strip near the Egypt-Gaza border. Aljazeera's Gaza correspondent Wael Dahduh reports all Palestinians inside the tunnel may have been killed. Witnesses in the area are however pinning hopes that they are still alive and merely trapped under the rubble. Israeli occupation forces controlling the occupied area allowed Palestinian ambulances and rescue workers to get to the scene of the incident. Palestinians have dug many tunnels from Egypt into Gaza to slip in arms but other tunnels have been used solely to smuggle in contraband like cigarettes. It was unclear whether the tunnel that collapsed had been dug by resistance fighters or traders. **Ongoing raid*** Earlier on Friday, Israeli occupation troops killed two Palestinians and wounded seven more in an ongoing raid in the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said at least 25 tanks and armoured personnel carriers took part in the raid, that resulted in the demolition of some Palestinian homes and damage to a fence surrounding the Nasir Hospital as well. The military invasion began with a helicopter strike in the Khan Yunus refugee camp in southern Gaza where a resistance fighter was killed and four other people were wounded. The fighter has been identified as Rami Abu Saada, a field commander in the Abul Reesh Battalions of the Fatah movement, reports Aljazeera's correspondent. A second Palestinian, said by witnesses to be a civilian, was killed during fighting later as the army bulldozed a number of houses saying it was trying to uncover launching points for missiles and mortars. The army said that at least 30 rockets and mortar bombs had been fired at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip during the week. The Khan Yunus raid was preceded by another airborne missile attack on a workshop in Rafah near the border with Egypt which the army said contained munitions stored by Hamas. Palestinian witnesses said on Thursday that the target was a basement carpentry shop. Local medics confirmed no one was hurt. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A Palestinian doctor tends to a boy wounded during an Israeli Army operation at the Nasser hospital in the Khan Younis Refugee Camp, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 17, 2004. (AP)