GAZA CITY - Two Palestinians were killed on Thursday when a smuggling tunnel linking the Gaza Strip and Gaza collapsed, Palestinian medics said.

Three other people who were in the tunnel at the time of the collapse were still missing, they said.

The Palestinians have been using hundreds of tunnels to ferry food supplies and other necessities into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since June 2007.

Israel claims the tunnels are also used by the Islamists to smuggle weapons including rockets into the Gaza Strip for use against the Jewish state.