The Palestinian Health Ministry said two Palestinians were killed and five injured in an attack that occurred early Thursday morning on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel Defense Forces have denied carrying out an attack overnight.
Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra confirmed the details and noted that the attack targeted a commercial tunnel between the Strip and the town of Rafah on the Egyptian side of the border. The two bodies and the injured were taken to a hospital in Gazan Rafah.
Eyewitnesses saw an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the opening of a tunnel on the Egyptian side. This kind of attack is likely to hurt anyone inside the tunnel.
#Breaking Israel killed Hussam Soufi, 24, & Mohamed Aqra, 38, from Rafah #Gaza, & injured 5 others after bombing them with F-16's at dawn pic.twitter.com/IRydHP9Pb4
— Dr Nessreen (@nzayed07) February 9, 2017
According to al-Qudra, the two men killed in the attack were 24-year-old Hossam Asofi of Rafah and Mohammad al Aqra, 38, from Gaza. The five wounded were not identified.
However, Al Jazeera reported an official Israeli denial of being behind the attack, and, instead, it accused Egypt of responsibility.
Egypt remained silent about its role, direct or otherwise behind the attack, and whether Israel has violated Egypt’s territorial sovereignty by striking a tunnel on the Egyptian side of the Rafah Gaza border.
(Haaretz, PC, Social Media)
