GAZA CITY: Two Hamas militants were killed and three were missing after a tunnel in the Gaza Strip collapsed, the Islamist group’s military wing said Thursday.
The Al-Qassam Brigades named the two killed as Rami Muneer al-Arier and Ismail Abdul Kareem Shamali, saying they died “following the collapse of a resistance tunnel”.
A source close to Qassam said five militants were in the tunnel when it collapsed and efforts were continuing to find and rescue the other three.
Since the beginning of the year, 22 Qassam militants have been killed “preparing equipment”, the group said in a statement, the majority in a string of tunnel collapses.
Over the years, the Hamas rulers of Gaza have built a labyrinth of tunnels, including those crossing under the border with Israel, for use in any renewed conflict.
Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008 and the territory has been under an Israeli blockade for a decade.
Attack tunnels were a key weapon for Hamas during the last conflict in 2014, with a number of surprise attacks inside Israeli territory.
The group also built a vast network of tunnels under the border with Egypt to smuggle goods and allegedly weapons but those have been severely disrupted by Cairo’s establishment of a no-man’s land along the frontier.
In the coming weeks, Israel’s state comptroller is expected to submit the final version of a report on the government’s lack of preparedness for the threat from infiltration tunnels in 2014.
Separately Thursday, the Israeli Shin Bet security service said they arrested six Hamas militants from the occupied West Bank who were planning shooting attacks and the kidnap of an Israeli.
A seventh militant suspected of being a key player in the plot is already serving a life sentence for involvement in the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier and other deadly attacks in the 1990s.
