GAZA CITY: An Israeli air raid early Wednesday on smuggling tunnels between the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and Egypt wounded four people, Palestinian medics said.
Palestinian medics had initially said a 23-year-old man was killed in the raid, but later corrected the information.
The Israeli army said it carried out a raid targeting two tunnels in response to a rocket that was fired into Israel late on Tuesday and landed without causing casualties or damage.
It marked the latest violence along Gaza s border, which has been mostly quiet since a war that Israel launched on Hamas in Gaza on December 27 in response to rocket fire ended with mutual ceasefires on January 18.
The ceasefires have largely held despite violations by both sides, but the past few weeks have seen an increase in both rocket fire and Israeli strikes.
Since Israel and Egypt sealed Gaza off to all but basic goods following the Islamist movement Hamas s seizure of the territory in June 2007, a vast trade in goods through hundreds of tunnels has developed along the border.
More than 120 Palestinians have died in cave-ins or been killed by Israeli operations targeting the network since the Hamas takeover of Gaza, medics say. – AFP
