Palestinian paramedics pulled a body of a worker from a tunnel beneath Egypt's border with Gaza Strip Sunday, raising the death toll of the tunnel collapse's incident to five, medical sources said.
Egyptian security forces threw poison gas into the tunnel Saturday, resulting in the death of the five Palestinian contraband workers who were under the ground, witnesses said.
Following the incident, the Palestinian rescue crews found two dead bodies and continued looking for more missing people. Two other workers died while on their way to the hospital, Xinhua reported.
Egypt beefed up security measures along its border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip while Israel intensified airstrikes on the tunnels, which are used to smuggle food and various goods into the territory.
In 2007, after Hamas routed security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel and Egypt maintained the closure of their borders with Gaza. As a result, hundreds of underground tunnels were dug for smuggling.