ISMAILIA, Egypt, Jan 20 (Reuters) - An Egyptian man was killed on Sunday near a smuggling tunnel connecting Egypt with the Gaza Strip, and Egyptian security sources and local Bedouin tribesmen traded blame over the incident. Egyptian security sources said police had acted on a tip-off about a tunnel hidden in a house near Egypt's border with the Palestinian territory, and had heard raised voices inside the house as the raid commenced. Security sources said police entered the house to find Fawzi Hamdan al-Qambaz, 60, dead on the floor after having apparently fought with his two nephews. A medical source said a preliminary examination of Qambaz's body revealed cuts on his head and feet. Egyptian police frequently find tunnels used for smuggling weapons and other contraband including cigarettes to Gaza. But violent confrontations with smugglers are fairly rare. The security sources added that Qambaz's brother Yasser was arrested inside the tunnel while trying to smuggle large quantities of cigarettes to the Palestinian territory. Sinai Bedouin sources rejected the police account of the death, saying Qambaz died after being beaten by police and that members of the Bedouin community would assemble to protest in the town of Rafah during his funeral. Relations between police and the Bedouin have been strained since 2004, when police detained thousands of local people for possible links to a group which had bombed tourist resorts. Bedouin and human rights groups said Egyptian security services launched campaigns of arbitrary arrests of Bedouin men after each attack, fuelling public anger in Sinai, and tensions have sometimes escalated into clashes. On Jan. 8, dozens of Bedouin activists angry about the arrest of two men involved in a tribal dispute opened fire at a border crossing with Israel, wounding an Egyptian officer and customs worker. (Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni; Editing by Caroline Drees)
Palestinians wait to buy cooking gas from a station in Gaza Strip January 20, 2008. Gaza's main power plant began shutting down on Sunday due to a fuel shortage caused by ...
