Two Palestinians have been found dead under a collapsed tunnel under the borderline between the southern Gaza Strip and Israel, medics and witnesses said.

The two were missing since Tuesday, when they were buried under the sands of the tunnel, where seven other workers were pulled out alive by local rescue teams, dpa reported.

Director of the Palestinian rescue teams Adnan Abu Selmeya said that Egyptian security forces found the bodies on Thursday and handed them over to the Palestinian side in the town of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.

Gaza rights groups say that 132 Palestinians have been killed in cave-ins and electrocutions in the tunnels over the past two and a half years.

Israel tightened its blockade on the Gaza Strip after the Hamas movement seized control of the coastal sliver in June 2007.

Since then, Palestinians have been left with no other option but burrowing tunnels to import food, medicine and fuels into the Gaza Strip.

(Press TV)