Israeli F-16 warplanes bombed the control tower at Gaza international tonight, one of a wave of reprisal raids following an attack on an Israeli bus that killed 10 people.
The attack set off a fire at the airport, that lies near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt.
Last week, Israeli forces wrecked the runway as part of an attack on symbols of Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat's authority following a wave of suicide bombings inside Israel that killed 26 people plus the bombers.
That incursion, which left the runway unusable, was the first time Israeli troops had entered the airport since it was opened in late 1998.
Israeli helicopters last Monday blasted Arafat's private heliport in Gaza City and destroyed two of his three helicopters, and seriously damaged the third, effectively grounding the Palestinian leader in the West Bank.
AFP AFP