3 Palestinians go missing on Egypt border

By Hedaya al-Saeedi

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Three Palestinian workers have gone missing while working inside an underground tunnel along border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, according to the Palestinian Interior Ministry.

In a statement on Monday, ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bozum said security agencies have launched an investigation into the disappearance of the workers.

Local media earlier said the three workers had been taken hostage by militants of a Daesh affiliate and taken into Egyptian territory.

The claim could not be verified by an independent source.

Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip, has remained the epicenter of a deadly militant insurgency since 2013.

In the almost four years since the coup, when the military deposed Egypt’s first freely elected president Mohamed Morsi, hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have been killed in militant attacks across the restive peninsula.

Egyptian authorities say they are battling the Welayat Sinai ("Province of Sinai") group, which is believed to have links with the Daesh terrorist group.