Israeli air strike targets building in south Gaza

Gaza, Sep 15: Israel mounted an air strike on a house in the southern Gaza Strip militant stronghold of Rafah near the Egyptian border today, Palestinian residents said.

There were no reports of casualties.

Israeli said the building contained the entrance to a tunnel that was being used for arms smuggling. Tunnels from Rafah were a regular conduit for arms smuggling from Egypt before Israel pulled out of the strip in 2005 after 38 years of occupation.

''A series of explosions after the attack showed that there was weaponry inside,'' an Israeli army spokesman said. The army said it warned residents to leave in advance of the air strike.

Israel has carried out frequent air strikes in Gaza as part of a military offensive launched in late June after militants seized an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid.

More than 210 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed during the offensive, which Israel says is also designed to stop militants firing makeshift rockets into the Jewish state.

Reuters

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