GAZA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft bombed smuggling tunnels connecting Gaza with Egypt on Tuesday after a rocket launched from the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip struck the Israeli port city of Ashkelon. Residents of the Gaza border crossing town of Rafah and officials of Hamas said Israeli airforce planes were attacking the tunnels, which have been bombed several times since early January. One Israeli plane also fired a missile into a training position of the armed wing of Hamas in Abassan village east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas and residents said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday warned once again of a harsh response to any further rocket fire from Gaza, although the country's Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said he does not foresee a new all-out offensive against Hamas. Both sides ordered ceasefires on Jan. 18 after Israel's devastating 22-day blitz on Hamas, in which 1,300 Palestinians were killed including over 700 civilians. Eleven Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed since the conflict erupted in late December. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Diana Abdallah)
Israel's Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu (C) visits the site of a rocket attack in the southern city of Ashkelon February 3, 2009. Netanyahu is a candidate for prime minister in ...
Israel
