Palestine Today 073009

Two men die in a tunnel collapse in Gaza and the Israeli military kidnaps eight civilians in the West Bank, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The News Cast

Two Palestinian men were reported killed on Wednesday at night and Thursday at dawn as a tunnel collapsed on them at the borders with Egypt near Rafah city, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Local sources reported that Amed Al Haloul, 18 years old, was killed on Wednesday at night as the tunnel he worked in collapsed on him. Later another man, Hassan Khader, 43, who was working with Al Haloul, was also found dead inside the tunnel at dawn on Thursday.

The Palestinian Ministry of health in Gaza reported that the number of people who died due to the tunnel collapse in the past 48 hours has now reached ten.

On Monday of this week seven men were killed as a tunnel collapsed on them at the southern Gaza borders with Egypt. The tunnel collapsed when the gasoline the men were channeling inside the tunnel leaked causing the tunnel to collapse.

Since Israel put Gaza under a total siege in June 2007 the tunnels became the main source of much needed supplies for the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

In other news, the Israeli military kidnapped eight Palestinian civilians during pre dawn and morning invasions targeting a number of West Bank communities.

Palestinian sources reported that the men were kidnapped after troops conducted house to house searches in Nablus city, in the northern West Bank, Ramallah city in the central West Bank and in Hebron city, in the south.

The Israeli army radio reported that all kidnapped men were moved to military detention camps for questioning.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org; this report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura.