5 more Palestinians confirmed killed from tunnel raid

By Mohamed Majed

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Five more Palestinians have been confirmed killed as a result of Monday’s raid by Israel in the Gaza Strip that destroyed a cross-border tunnel near the border with Israel.

The deaths were confirmed in a Friday statement released by the Saraya al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestine’s Islamic Jihad movement.

The confirmations bring the total death toll from Monday’s raid to 12.

In its statement, the Saraya al-Quds Brigades said its fighters had been killed while digging in the tunnel.

On Thursday, Palestinian civil-defense personnel said that Israel had demanded information about abducted Israeli soldiers -- who are allegedly being held in the Gaza Strip -- in return for allowing Palestinian rescue teams to approach the targeted tunnel entrance.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that Israel had refused to allow us to proceed to the border area to complete the search for missing Palestinians inside the tunnel,” Palestine’s civil-defense agency said in a statement.

Earlier the same day, Yoav Mordechai, Israel’s coordinator of government activities in the occupied territories, told ICRC official Jacques De Maio that Israel would not allow search efforts to proceed “without progress on the issue of Israeli prisoners of war”, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

On Monday, Israeli forces destroyed the entrance of a cross-border tunnel linking the blockaded Gaza Strip to Israeli territory.

According to initial reports, the raid left seven Palestinians dead and another 12 injured.