Al-Arish, Egypt - Egyptian police destroyed four smuggling tunnels in the border town of Rafah, an Egyptian security official said Monday.

The tunnels were discovered in Salaheddin and Qomboz neighbourhoods in Rafah, which is bisected by Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip.

Inside the tunnels, police discovered a large number of material used for construction including paint and cement piled inside plastic bags and ready to be smuggled to Gaza, the source told the German Press Agency dpa.

Al-Arish, Egypt  - Egyptian police killed an unidentified African migrant Friday as he was attempting to enter Israel illegally, a security source said.

Police ordered the man to stop, and opened fire when he failed to do so, the source added.

The African, whose nationality was not immediately known because he had no identity papers on him, was shot in the chest and was dead by the time he reached Rafah hospital.

The African was accompanied by an Eritrean, who was arrested and held in al-Arish prison.

Al-Arish, Egypt  - Egyptian police seized half a ton of explosives in a cemetery in the border town of Rafah, an Egyptian security official told the German Press Agency dpa on Saturday.

Police discovered eight large plastic bags full of TNT in the Maqronatien cemetery in the divided town of Rafah, which is bisected by Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, a source in Egypt's Interior Ministry said, requesting anonymity.

Tanks shells and ammunition left over from the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel were also found in the cache, he said.

Al-Arish, Egypt  - Egyptian police were searching for survivors after a tunnel used for smuggling goods under Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip collapsed on Saturday, police said.

Egyptian police told the German Press Agency dpa that security officials from the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip had contacted them for assistance in rescuing a group of young Palestinian smugglers after they did not emerge from the tunnel.

Al-Arish, Egypt  - Families of Egyptian men detained on suspicion of plotting attacks against Egypt on behalf of the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been warned against meeting with rights lawyers, one of the lawyers alleged on Wednesday.

Al-Arish, Egypt - Egyptian security forces discovered half a ton of explosives not far from Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, police said Monday.

Police found more than 500 kilos of TNT, along with light weapons and remnants from the peninsula's past wars in the dunes less than 40 kilometres from Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip at Rafah, a source in Egypt's security forces told German Press Agency dpa on condition of anonymity.

Al-Arish, Egypt  - One man was killed and another was injured on Friday when a fire broke out in a tunnel used to smuggle petrol from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, a security source told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

The tunnel, which was used to smuggle petrol into the Gaza Strip through plastic pipes, caught fire on Friday morning, the security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Al-Arish, Egypt - Hundreds of Palestinians stormed Egypt's border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and threw rocks at police in protest at slow entry procedures a day after the border was temporarily reopened.

Angry crowds, who have been waiting for hours to be allowed to pass through the Rafah crossing, swept through the checkpoint and entered Egyptian territory by force, security officials said.

Egyptian border guards using water canons dispersed the Palestinians, who threw rocks at them.

The Palestinians were frustrated that only scores of Gazans have been allowed to cross the border since Egypt opened it on Tuesday morning for two days following a truce agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.