Gaza City, February 03: The Israeli air force bombed a suspected smuggling tunnel on the Gaza-Egypt border on Wednesday in response to rocket attacks, the military said. No casualties were reported.
“The site was targeted in response to the recent rocket fire from the Gaza Strip,” a military statement said, referring to Grad rockets and mortar rounds fired from Gaza on Monday night, one of which exploded near a wedding in southern Israel, although nobody was injured.
Witnesses in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah said there were no casualties in the Israel air raid.
“Since the beginning of 2011, over 30 Grad missiles, Qassam rockets and mortar shells have landed in Israeli territory,” the military said, adding that it regarded Gaza’s Hamas rulers as responsible for all fire from the territory.
Gaza’s main militant factions last month agreed to observe a period of calm after weeks of increased rocket fire and rising tensions along the border which prompted a warning from Arab leaders that there was a risk of a major new Israeli invasion.
Israeli carried out a massive 22-day offensive against the territory from December 2008 to January 2009, which killed 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.
–Agencies–