Hamas fighter killed in tunnel collapse

Khaled al-Hoor died in the accident, the spokesman of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qodra said.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said it "deplored" the 22-year-old's death in a statement issued on the day.

In July, another tunnel collapse in Gaza killed a member of Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad.

The collapse occurred in the northern Gaza Strip, the al-Quds Brigades, Jihad's armed wing, said in a statement, without providing further details.

Hamas as well as Islamic Jihad and other groups maintain a tunnel network within the Palestinian enclave, both for smuggling and military purposes.

Since January, more than a dozen Gazans have been killed in tunnel collapses.

Israel accuses resistance fighters in Gaza of rebuilding tunnels that could be used to attack it, with three wars having been fought between them since 2008.

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.

Egypt, which shares a border with the besieged Palestinian region, has also destroyed tunnels that are used by Palestinians to smuggle commercial goods, cash, people and allegedly weapons.