AL-MOGHRAGA: Palestinian members of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement carry the body of fellow militant Ahmed Al-Zahar during his funeral in the village of Al-Moghraga near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. —AFP

GAZA: The collapse of a tunnel in the Gaza Strip has killed two militants from Hamas's armed wing, officials said yesterday, as concern grows in Israel over the rebuilding of tunnels that can be used for attacks. The collapse on Tuesday night was the second such incident since last week. A tunnel collapse on January 26 killed seven militants from Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said a local commander was among the two members killed in Tuesday's collapse in the area of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Ismail Haniya, Hamas's chief in Gaza, has vowed to continue building tunnels that have in the past been used to stage attacks against Israel and store weapons. Israel destroyed a large number of tunnels in the 2014 Gaza war, the third conflict to hit the Palestinian enclave since 2008. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that "if we are attacked from tunnels from the Gaza Strip, we will take very strong action against Hamas."

Shooting and stabbing

In another development, three Palestinian assailants were shot dead yesterday while carrying out a shooting and stabbing attack that wounded two Israeli paramilitary policewomen at an entrance to Jerusalem's walled Old City, Israeli police said. It was the latest in a spate of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings by Palestinians that has killed 26 Israelis and a US citizen since October. Israeli forces have killed at least 155 Palestinians, 101 of them assailants according to authorities. Most of the others have died in violent protests.

A police spokeswoman said the Palestinians launched the attack at the Damascus Gate, a busy plaza in East Jerusalem, after being stopped by police for an identity check. All of the three attackers were carrying concealed weapons and at least one of them opened fire with an automatic rifle, critically wounding one of the policewomen before they were shot dead by Israeli security forces, the spokeswoman said. The other policewoman was stabbed and wounded, and two pipe bombs were found at the scene, the police spokeswoman said. The surge in attacks has been partly fuelled by Palestinian frustration over the collapse of US-sponsored peace talks in 2014, the growth of Jewish settlements on occupied land they seek for a future state, and Islamist calls for the destruction of Israel.- Agencies