Israeli jets strike southern Gaza smuggling tunnels (Extra)

Feb 2, 2010, 23:16 GMT

Gaza - Israeli F-16s carried out an airstrike late Tuesday against underground smuggling tunnels at the Gaza Strip-Egypt border, witnesses and security sources said.

No casualties were reported.

The witnesses said that the Israeli warplanes circled over southern Gaza before rocketing the border area and destroying several tunnels.

Israel imposed a tight Gaza blockade more than two years ago, when the Palestinian coastal territory was seized by the Islamic militant movement Hamas. Since then, Palestinians have burrowed hundreds of tunnels and smuggled goods and fuel from Egypt into the enclave.

Israel said that Gaza Strip militants are also using tunnels to smuggle Iranian-supplied weapons and explosives into the Gaza Strip.

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli radio reported that a homemade rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel. No damage or casualties were reported in the rocket attack, and there was no claim of responsibility.

The Israeli airstrike on the borderline area was carried out after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed earlier Tuesday to retaliate after the discovery of floating explosives on Israel's southern shores near Gaza.

The pro-Hamas Popular Resistance Committees and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Tuesday for floating, explosive-laden barrels, planted by Gaza Strip militants.

Popular Resistance Committees spokesman Abu Saed said that the barrels were meant to avenge the January 20 slaying in Dubai of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a veteran Hamas operative who Israeli defense officials say was involved in smuggling rockets into Gaza.

Israeli police cordoned off beaches, ordered surfers out of the water and deployed robotic bomb squads along a large swath of southern Israel's coastline after two explosives-laden barrels washed up on shore.