Two Palestinians have been killed in a blast in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border, police and hospital officials said Saturday. Police said Saturday that two others are still missing. According to the AP, officials said the blast went off Friday when a gas canister blew up.
Friday's deaths bring to 47 the number of Palestinians killed in tunnels this year.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces raided a Hamas bomb factory and arrested 11 members of the rival faction in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday, a senior police officer said. The raid was part of a law-and-order drive pursued by Abbas in the West Bank since he broke with Hamas over its seizure of the Gaza Strip last year.
Ramadan Awad, chief of the Palestinian Authority police in Hebron, said more than 100 kg of explosives were seized along with ammunition and homemade firearms. "The factory was preparing bombs which would have been used against us and against the will of the Palestinians," he told Reuters.
A Hamas official in Hebron said the targeted building had no links to Hamas.
