Seven Palestinian fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades resistance group were martyred on Thursday, after a tunnel collapsed east of the Gaza Strip.

Seven Palestinian fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades resistance group were martyred on Thursday, after a tunnel collapsed east of the Gaza Strip, civil defense units and local sources in Gaza said.

The seven men went missing on Wednesday, when a tunnel has reportedly collapsed due to the heavy rain and floods in Gaza.

According to witnesses, The announcement of finding the bodies of the martyrs was made this morning through loud speakers of Gaza mosques.

Sources said that some bodies of the seven missing fighters have been recovered, while medical teams still working to dig out the rest.

The tunnels are often used to smuggle goods and supplies, especially after Egypt has closed the only non-Zionist crossing point to Gaza, following the 2013 overthrow of the country’s president Mohammad Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.