CAIRO: The Egyptian military Wednesday shot dead three Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated through a smuggling tunnel in the Sinai town of Rafah on the border with Gaza, security officials said.

They said the “armed Palestinians” and the military clashed in a buffer zone established along the border.

The gunmen had infiltrated through one of the smuggling tunnels used to transport fuel and food supplies to the Gaza Strip.

Cairo accuses militants of the Palestinian movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, of using the tunnels to infiltrate Egypt and aid terrorists who launch regular attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

The army says it has destroyed hundreds of underground tunnels, many since the ouster of Egypt’s President Muhammad Mursi in July 2013.