The collapsed tunnel was used for military training. The dead and injured people were members of Hamas` armed wing.
According to the medical sources, the injured were badly injured.
Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 after routing security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas` Fatah party. The group depends on tunnels both militarily and commercially.
When Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza to isolate Hamas, a network of smuggling tunnels beneath Gaza`s southern border with Egypt served as the lifeline of the densely populated coastal enclave.
Hamas militants dug a tunnel beneath Israel`s borders with Gaza in 2006 and used the tunnel to attack an Israeli army base outside Gaza and kidnap an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was swapped for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011.
(U.C003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
