Gaza City: Seven Palestinians were killed on Monday as Israel blew up what it said was a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into its territory, a rare case of such an incident since a devastating 2014 war.
Ashraf Al Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-led Gazan health ministry, confirmed seven men had been killed, with a further 12 injured.
Two came from Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, while the other five were from the Hamas-allied group Islamic Jihad, the two groups confirmed.
Hamas called Monday’s incident “a dangerous escalation against our people”.
It did not pledge a specific response but said “resisting the occupation... is a natural and guaranteed right for our people”.
Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the tunnels were “part of the policy of deterrence to defend the Palestinian people”.
Monday’s operation came as Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah seek to follow through on a reconciliation deal signed earlier this month aimed at ending a decade-long rift between them.
Hamas is due to hand control of the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinian National Authority by December 1 under the agreement.
Besides calling it an escalation, Hamas said the Israeli operation was “a desperate attempt which aims to undermine efforts to rebuild Palestinian unity”.
Tunnels dug by Hamas were a key issue in the last war with Israel in 2014, but discoveries of those stretching into the Jewish state have since been rare.
Jonathan Conricus, spokesman for the occupation forces, said the Israeli regime’s army was not seeking further escalation.
Israel has warned that it will not accept a unity government that includes Hamas if the Islamist movement does not disarm and recognise the country, among other demands.
Israel launched its 2014 operation in Gaza with the stated objectives of halting rocket fire and destroying attack tunnels into Israel.
It was the third war in Gaza since 2008 and the longest, deadliest and most destructive.
It killed 2,251 Palestinians, while more than 10,000 were wounded and 100,000 were left homeless.
On the Israeli side, 74 people were killed, all but six of them soldiers.
