Gaza, ALRAY - A body of al-Qassam members were recovered from a tunnel in Gaza on Saturday, a security source said.

"The body ... was recovered from a tunnel after digging for more than 20 metres (yards) underground near the border" with Israel, east of Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip, the source said.

Four members of the military wing of Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas were killed late Thursday in clashes sparked by an Israeli raid to destroy the tunnel.

The body recovered on Saturday was that of Khaled Abu Bakr, the source said.

Rescue workers started digging early Saturday for three bodies still missing from the clashes, along with staff from the International Committee for the Red Cross, and watched from the nearby border by Israeli troops.

Spokesman for Palestinian Government told AFP that Egypt had helped persuade Israel to allow the teams to dig.

One of the four men killed, Rabieh Barikeh, was buried on Friday, and Hamas sources had said the other three members' bodies had also been found.

But a Hamas source in Khan Younis, on condition of anonymity, said three men were killed "in a clash with (Israeli) soldiers ... inside the tunnel when the explosion happened and it was shelled by Israeli tanks and aircraft".

The men had "tried to kidnap Israeli soldiers who entered the tunnel", he said.

Health Minister Ashraf al-Qidra said emergency crews would resume their search for the remaining two bodies on Monday.

AFP contributed to the report.