**Four Palestinians have died in a smuggling tunnel under Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials say.**Some reports said the tunnel collapsed after an explosion on the Egyptian side, but this has not been confirmed.
Another report quoted a Hamas official as saying the tunnel had been filled with gas. Egypt has not commented.
Cairo is trying to shut down the network of tunnels through which Gazans try to beat the Israeli blockade.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian man died after being shot during a protest near Gaza’s border with Israel.
Palestinian medics said the 20-year-old man had been shot by Israeli forces, but Israel would only say the incident was being investigated.
An army spokesman told AFP news agency that soldiers had fired warning shots at protesters trying to start a fire near the security barrier, without specifying if any Palestinians were hit.
Smuggling route
In Gaza, Palestinian officials said at least another three people in the tunnel were injured.
The tunnels are used to smuggle in arms, fuel and goods from Egypt, but cave-ins are frequent.
Egypt is building a huge underground barrier along the Gaza border to stop smuggling.
The structure - made of bomb-proof steel - will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and extend 18m (59ft) below the surface.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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