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Hamas commander killed in 10th tunnel cave-in this year
[IsraelTimes] A tunnel collapse in Gazoo killed a commander with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,’s military wing, the group said Monday, in the 10th such cave-in since the start of 2016.A brigades front man described the collapse as a "work accident," the Paleostinian Ma’an news agency reported. The tunnel collapse occurred in the Shejaiyah neighborhood east of Gazoo City, where some of the most intense fighting of the 2014 war between Israel and Gazoo-based fighters took place. The field commander killed in the collapse was named by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades as Abd al-Salah al-Butnaji, 36. The collapse came days after another tunnel collapse near Rafah killed two people. Since January 10 tunnels have caved in and 14 people have been killed, according to Hamas figures. It is not clear what is causing the collapse of the tunnels or what their purpose is. Israeli officials have warned that Hamas has begun rebuilding its network of subterranean tunnels, some of which could extend into Israeli territory and be used for surprise attacks, as they were in 2014. Jerusalem says it is working on a secret technological solution to the problem. When asked if Israeli forces were causing the tunnel collapses earlier this year, an IDF commander would only say "God knows." Egypt has also been working to thwart the construction of smuggling tunnels into the Sinai peninsula by flooding them. On Thursday, five Paleostinians were rescued after an underground passage leading from the southern Gazoo town of Rafah into neighboring Egypt fell in. Another two were pulled out dead on Sunday. That incident was caused by Egyptian flooding of the border zone in its campaign to stop smuggling, an official told AFP. Posted by: trailing wife 2016-03-15 |
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