GAZA: Israeli warplanes bombed a number of smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip border early on Wednesday, killing two Palestinians and wounding six others witnesses and medical sources said.
Witnesses said that three tunnels were completely destroyed and four others were damaged as a result of the heavy bombardment. Medical sources at Abu Yousef Al-Najar hospital in Rafah city said that Mohammed Abu Seif 45, and Riziq Al-Masri 28, were brought dead at the hospital.
The sources added that a group of tunnel workers were trying to repair the damage caused by the bombardment, but got stuck beneath rubbles when the tunnel collapsed.
Israeli military sources said that the air raid in the town of Rafah along Egyptian border was carried out after local fighters launched two homemade rockets at southern Israel late on Tuesday.
It marked the latest violence along Gaza’s borders, which have been mostly quiet since a war that Israel launched on Hamas in Gaza on Dec. 27 in response to rocket fire ended with mutual cease-fires on Jan.18. The cease-fires have largely held despite violations by both sides, but the past few weeks have seen an increase in both rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes.
So far at least 124 Palestinians have been killed while working in the tunnels since Israel imposed a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Last month, 13 Palestinian died in tunnels.
Gazans use tunnels for smuggling goods, food and fuel to overcome the Israeli siege imposed on the impoverished costal strip. But Israel says some of the tunnels are used to import weapons for Palestinian resistance groups inside Gaza.
