Zionist air raid on Ghaza: Three Palestinians killed and 1 missing

GHAZA- Three Palestinians were killed and nine others wounded when a Zionist air raid conducted on the night of Monday to Tuesday against two smuggling tunnels being dug in the southern Ghaza Strip, according to revised figures from Palestinian medical sources.

•     Aviation has launched the raid in response to fire mortars into southern Israel, which has caused one wounded soldiers, according to a statement by the Israeli army.
  
      The tunnels in question, near the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt, have collapsed while Palestinians were digging, said Palestinian medics sources.
  
      Three brothers, Mansour (30), Wael (26) and Ibrahim Al-Batniji (24) were killed in the raid. Nine other Palestinians were wounded; three seriously, while a tenth was reported missing, according to medical sources.
  
      Both tunnels were under excavation Tuesday morning to try to find the last missing, the sources added.
  
      The tunnels in the Rafah area are used for smuggling weapons, fuel and goods from Egypt into the Ghaza Strip, blockaded by Israel since taking power in the territory by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas June 2007.
  
      Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that the Israeli army "will replicate each rocket or mortar shells" from the Ghaza Strip.
  
      Monday, a Palestinian was killed and another wounded by Israeli fire in northern Ghaza, near the border with Israel, said a Palestinian medical sources.
  
      After this incident, the army said three mortar shells were fired towards Israel, one of which slightly injured a soldier.
  
      In response to rockets fired from Ghaza, the Israeli army launched last winter an offensive against Hamas, which officially aims to halt rocket fire.
  
      This military operation has killed more than 1400 dead and 5000 Palestinians wounded, mostly civilians, and devastated large areas of the populated territory.
  
      The army said more than 200 rockets and mortar shells were fired from Ghaza into Israel since the end of the Israeli offensive against Hamas.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.