Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – Palestinian man died on early Sunday in underground tunnel along the Salah Eddin route on the border between Gaza Strip and Egypt, a Palestinian official said. Ashref al-Qidreh, the spokesman of the Health Ministry in Hamas government, said that the 29-year-old Bassam Ismail al-Firmawi died in one of the tunnels on the border with Egypt. Al-Qidreh said that al-Firmawi died of electric shock while working in the tunnel. He added that the man was transferred to al-Najjar hospital in the southern Rafah city where doctors announced his death. The Gaza-based al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said last year that 232 Palestinians died in Gaza's tunnels since 2006. The group said 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. It added 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 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.” Hamas says that the work in 95 percent of underground tunnels along the Salah Eddin route stopped due to Egyptian security measures. The movements said that the smuggling of fuel, food and construction material stopped in recent months due to the strict security measures that the Egyptian security authorities are carrying out along the border with Gaza Strip. The tunnels serve as the major lifeline for the Gaza Strip's 1.7 million people. Egyptian security authorities said that they closed the tunnels because of militant attacks on Egyptian security forces in the lawless Sinai Peninsula. The Palestinian movement denies the allegations. 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.
