Ramallah, December 6 (RHC)-- Emergency workers in Gaza have recovered the bodies of four Palestinians who had gone missing in a tunnel running under the coastal enclave's border into Egypt.

Palestinian sources say Egyptian officials flooded the tunnel, resulting in the deaths.  The rescue workers have now found the fourth body after a week of searching.  No comments have been made by the Egyptian army yet.

In recent years, the Egyptian military has used wastewater and sea water to flood Gaza tunnels.

Cairo has been repeatedly criticized for its complicity in the siege of Gaza, shutting the Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian strip and destroying hundreds of tunnels.  In September 2015, Egypt built huge pipelines along the Gaza border and flooded the last remaining tunnels.

The population in Gaza relies on underground routes to bring in basic commodities. The densely-populated area, home to over 1.8 million Palestinians, has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007. The blockade has resulted in unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty.