ISMAILIA, Egypt, March 30 (Reuters) - One Palestinian was killed and another severely injured when a tunnel used for smuggling between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed on them, Egyptian medical and security sources said on Sunday. Palestinian Abdel Rahman Atieh Gomaa, 28, had fallen into a coma and was rushed to a hospital in the Egyptian coastal town of El-Arish. He had been trying to cross from Gaza into Egypt near the border town of Rafah, Egyptian security sources said. An unidentified Palestinian was also killed in the tunnel collapse, eyewitnesses said. Dozens of underground tunnels, used to smuggle contraband and people, crisscross the frontier between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Cave-ins and accidents are commonplace. Israel and the United States have been pressing Egypt to seal the tunnels to prevent militants, especially Hamas Islamists, from stockpiling weapons and longer range rockets to fire into Israel. Hamas militants smashed open the border near where the tunnels were found earlier this year to relieve pressure from an Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. Egyptian border forces later re-sealed the openings. (Reporting by Yusri Mohamed, writing by Will Rasmussen)
A Palestinian man prays in front of the controversial Israeli barrier near the Qalandiya checkpoint just outside the West Bank city of Ramallah March 30, 2008. Israel announced plans on Sunday ...
