GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The Gaza government announced Friday it has closed tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt due to heavy rainfall in the area.

Gaza's border authority told Ma’an that the tunnels were shut on Thursday night, and will be opened again on Sunday.

During severe floods in January, at least three tunnel workers were killed after the structures collapsed around them.

A human rights group in Gaza urged the government to implement better safety measures and assess the benefits of the network as a whole, saying 232 people had been killed in collapsing tunnels.

The tunnel network developed as a vital source of goods under Israel's blockade of the coastal strip and Egyptian restrictions on the official Rafah crossing point.