Two Palestinians died Monday in a cross-border tunnel between Gaza and Egypt when Egyptian officials pumped a toxic gas into the chamber. Hundreds of such tunnels have been dug by Palestinians to circumvent Israel’s 12-year-long blockade of Gaza. Gazan officials says they’re smuggling tunnels, but Israel says they’re for terrorist operations.
When the Egyptian officials began pumping an unknown toxic gas into the tunnel overnight, three Palestinian tunnel workers signaled for help. Responding were 39-year-old Hamas officer Abdul Hamid al-Aker, who went inside to “security mission to inspect the tunnel, along with 28-year-old Sobhi Abu Qarshin, a civilian, Palestine’s Wafa News Agency reported Monday.