Israeli strikes kill 3 in Gaza

Palestinians inspect a crater on the ground opened by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City yesterday. Israeli airstrikes hit seven targets in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip early Friday, killing three men and wounding another, Palestinian medics said.Photo: AFP

Israeli airstrikes against targets in Gaza killed three men early yesterday in a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border, Palestinian officials reported.
The Israeli strikes came in retaliation for a rocket and mortar barrage launched into Israel on Thursday.
The bodies of two men killed when missiles hit a tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border have reached the morgue at nearby Rafah Hospital, according to Dr Salam Abu Salem. An AP Television News cameraman saw a third body being removed later Friday from the same tunnel.
Dozens of Palestinian smugglers have died in collapses and strikes against the tunnels, which are used to bring everything from cigarettes and chocolate to livestock and weapons into the blockaded territory. Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade to weaken Gaza's rulers, the Islamic militants of Hamas, who violently seized power there in 2007.
Israel's military said that in addition to the smuggling tunnels its aircraft also targeted a weapons manufacturing facility and another tunnel meant to allow militants to sneak into Israel for an attack.