Israeli warplanes bombed tunnels beneath the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt today killing two Palestinians.
Medical workers who reached the area hours after the attacks said they had recovered the bodies of two Palestinian men involved in digging the subterranean passages Israel says are used to smuggle weapons into Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The men were the first fatalities in Israeli-Palestinian violence since early March when an Israeli missile killed a Palestinian militant Israel said was preparing to launch a rocket.
An Israeli military spokesman said the strikes targeted three tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip near the town of Rafah, along the Egyptian border.
Israel had resumed aerial attacks yesterday on the tunnels after a nearly two-month hiatus in fighting, after a rocket fired from Gaza struck inside Israel.
Israel said three mortars were fired at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, causing no casualties. The Palestinian Resistance Committees, a militant group in Gaza, claimed it had fired the mortars.
Militant rocket fire had dropped significantly since Egypt began efforts to consolidate the January 18 truce that ended Israel's 22-day offensive against Gaza's Islamic militants.