Israeli aircraft bomb suspected Gaza tunnels

[David]

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli aircraft bombed suspected smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border on Monday after rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel.

"This was part of our response to the rocket fire," an Israeli military spokesman said. "Three tunnels were destroyed."

There were no reports of injuries in the Israeli air strikes near the southern Gaza town of Rafah or in the Palestinian rocket attacks.

Egypt has been trying to broker a long-term truce to consolidate a ceasefire that went into effect on January 18 after a three-week Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Since the end of the operation, Palestinians have been rebuilding tunnels under the Egyptian frontier, raising Israeli concern that Hamas could replenish its rocket arsenal.

Tunnels also carry people and goods from Egypt into the Gaza Strip to circumvent a blockade imposed by Israel with the help of the Egyptian government, which keeps the Rafah border crossing closed for ordinary Palestinians.

Security sources in Egypt said an Egyptian patrol caught three Palestinians on Monday after they crossed the border, probably via a tunnel, from the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert repeated his demand of Hamas that Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured in 2006, should be released as part of any deal on a prisoner swap, opening Gaza's borders and cementing the ceasefire.