Palestinian militant killed in Gaza tunnel collapse: Islamic Jihad

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: A Palestinian militant has died after a tunnel collapse in the Gaza Strip, Islamic Jihad has announced, in the latest in a series of such incidents.
Salah al-Astal, 28, from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, died while working in a tunnel, the Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamist movement's military wing, announced in a statement late on Monday.
It said he had died during the "collapse of a resistance tunnel," a term used by Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other Palestinian militant factions to refer to tunnels used in the conflict with Israel.
It was the second such death in 10 days, after another Islamic Jihad member died in similar circumstances on July 10.
Israel accuses militants in Gaza of rebuilding tunnels that could be used to attack it, with three wars having been fought between them since 2008.
A spokesman for the Al-Quds Brigades told AFP Tuesday they would continue to focus on tunnel building as it enables them to "hurt the enemy".
Since Jan 26, at least 14 Gazans have been killed in at least seven separate tunnel collapses.
Israel and Egypt have both launched operations to try to prevent tunnelling.
Clashes broke out on the Gaza border in May as Israel revealed a new tunnel reaching into its territory from the Palestinian enclave, after another was discovered in mid-April.
That violence was the worst flare-up between the army and Hamas since a devastating 2014 war, with Hamas attacking forces operating nearby with mortar rounds and Israel responding with air raids and tank fire, which resulted in the death of a Gaza woman.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade for around a decade and its border with Egypt also remains largely closed.
Egypt has also destroyed Palestinian tunnels used to smuggle in commercial goods, cash, people and, allegedly, weapons. — AFP