Two Palestinians were killed and three other people reported missing on Saturday after a smuggling tunnel running under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed, witnesses and medical officials reported.
Rescue teams rushed to the area and pulled out the two bodies. Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweya Hassanein reported that rescue activities for three missing people in the tunnel at the time of the collapse were still going on.
Security sources from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said the reason for the tunnel's collapse was not immediately known. Residents reported hearing a huge blast shortly before the collapse.
Smuggling has intensified since the violent takeover of Gaza by the Islamist group Hamas in 2007. Israel and Egypt responded with a blockade that led to a shortage of many goods.
Since then, Palestinians have dug hundreds of tunnels for smuggling fuel, food, medicine, beverages and electric generators from Egypt into Gaza.
Israel destroyed dozens of tunnels during and after a 22-day Israeli air, ground and sea offensive that ended January 18, saying those tunnels are also used for smuggling weapons to Gaza militants.
A Gaza human rights group says more than 100 people have died in tunnel collapses since 2007.
