RAMALLAH – A Palestinian human rights organization Friday said that 232 Palestinians died in underground tunnels along the Salah Eddin route on the border between Gaza Strip and Egypt since 2006. The Gaza-based al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said in a press statement that 20 Palestinians died during heavy Israeli bombardment on the smuggling tunnels leading to Egypt. The report said that 9 of the 232 tunnels' victims were children. The center said that 597 Palestinians also have been wounded during work in the tunnels since that year. It added that the Palestinian workers “did not abide by safety and security procedures during their work in the tunnels.” The center cited the last storm that hit the Palestinian territories last week as an example. It said that three Palestinians died and eight were wounded after they refused to evacuate one of the tunnels after several others collapsed as a result of the stormy weather. It added that “the Palestinian Civil Defense Department located the bodies of two and the search for the third is still ongoing until the release of the statement.” The center called on the Hamas government in Gaza Strip “to carry out procedures to save the lives of workers in the tunnels.” It also called on the government “to reevaluate the phenomenon of working in the tunnels in light of the said the increase in casualties.” The work in the tunnels resumed on Wednesday after two days due the last week's stormy weather. Maher Abu Sabheh, head of Interior Ministry's crossings directorate, said the work in the tunnels resumed after they “underwent a safety check.”The tunnels are sponsored by the Hamas-run government that seized control over the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. Palestinian sources said that the some 1,200 tunnels were used to smuggle heavy equipment, people to and from Gaza as well as food and fuel to cope with Israel's siege of the coastal enclave. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said recently that “800 millionaires and 1,600 near-millionaires control the tunnels at the expense of both Egyptian and Palestinian national interests.” On last August, Egypt temporarily closed its borders with Gaza after allegations that militants who killed 16 of its soldiers had passed through the tunnels. Israel imposed an economic siege on Gaza Strip in June 2006 when Hamas-led armed groups kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross border raid near the enclave. Israel tightened the siege in June 2007, when Hamas routed security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and ousted his Fatah movement from the area.
