The collapse on Tuesday night was the second such incident since last week. A tunnel collapse on January 26 killed seven militants from Hamas the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip.

Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said a local commander was among the two members killed in Tuesday's collapse in the area of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Ismail Haniya Hamas's chief in Gaza has vowed to continue building tunnels that have in the past been used to stage attacks against Israel and store weapons.

Israel destroyed a large number of tunnels in the 2014 Gaza war the third conflict to hit the Palestinian enclave since 2008.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that "if we are attacked from tunnels from the Gaza Strip we will take very strong action against Hamas."