JERUSALEM: Israeli warplanes launched two pre-dawn raids on tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip, injuring one person, after Palestinian insurgents fired rockets into Israel, the army and Palestinian sources said.
A spokesman for the Israeli military confirmed the strikes targeted two tunnels used to smuggle arms into the Islamist Hamas-run enclave.
Palestinian medical sources said one person had been lightly injured in the overnight strike on the tunnels.
Late on Saturday, Gaza insurgents carried out their second rocket on Israel in two days, with a missile exploding near Sderot, causing damage at a university building but no casualties.
Israeli cabinet minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer told army radio that the army was "not going to sit there with its arms crossed in the face of these attacks," but that its response would be measured.
"We do not want to set of an escalation because that is exactly what Hamas wants, which is why our response is hard but limited," he said.
Israel routinely launches air strikes after rocket attacks from Gaza. The strikes rarely kill anyone, but on Friday a raid in response to a rocket that hit Israel’s southern town of Ashkelon killed a senior Hamas military commander.
Hamas vowed revenge for Friday’s raids that also wounded another eight people and the number of people made homeless is rising, the provincial minister said.
"The flash floods destroyed maize and (rice) paddy crops in Nowshera," Hussain said.
"Our rescue teams are also trying to extricate some 1,500 tourists who are stranded in the Kalam and Behrain towns of Swat district," he said, referring to a region where the military last year waged a major anti-Taliban offensive.
"We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," Hussain added.
Authorities are using school buildings as emergency shelters, and are providing food, medicines and other basic necessities, the minister said.
However, authorities said they had repaired a damaged portion of the Islamabad-Peshawar motorway to restore the northwest region’s road links with the rest of Pakistan.
The army said it had sent boats and helicopters to rescue stranded people and its engineers were trying to open more roads and divert swollen rivers.
The European Commission said it had given €30 million ($39 million) in humanitarian aid to help the most needy.
The flooding capped a week of tragedy for Pakistan after an airliner crashed into hills near Islamabad Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board.
