Islamic Jihad militant killed in tunnel collapse

An Islamic Jihad militant was killed Thursday when a tunnel he was digging to attack Israeli troops collapsed in the northern Gaza Strip, the group said. "An Al-Quds Brigade member was martyred when a resistance tunnel collapsed," Islamic Jihad said in a statement, referring to its military wing. It said the collapse was accidental and occurred near Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. Militants use "resistance tunnels" to try and infiltrate into Israel or attack Israeli soldiers, like the one used to capture Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit More than 100 Palestinians have also been killed in accidents in smuggling tunnels linking southern Gaza to Egypt. Also Thursday militants fired a rocket from Gaza toward the Israeli city of Ashkelon, but it fell in an open are without causing damage, Palestinian witnesses and Israeli media said. The Israeli military said it could not confirm the rocket attack. Last week militants had agreed to observe a period of calm, effectively calling a halt to 10 days of rocket attacks and Israeli counter strikes. Despite the tension in and around Gaza, both Israel and Hamas appear reluctant to be dragged into another bloody confrontation along the lines of the deadly 2008-2009 war, which killed more than 1,400 people, the vast majority Palestinians. That 22-day offensive was launched by Israel in order to stamp out persistent rocket fire from Gaza.