Israeli warplanes strike Gaza tunnels; kill 3

January 9, 2010 - 0:0

GAZA CITY (AP) – Israeli warplanes attacked on different places in Gaza and killed three people on Friday in an “economic” tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border, Palestinian officials reported.

The Israeli air strikes on Thursday targeted Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah, which is on the Egyptian border.
The bodies of two people killed including a 14-year-old boy when Israeli missiles hit an economic tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border have reached the morgue at nearby Rafah Hospital, according to Dr. Salam Abu Salem. An Associated Press Television News cameraman saw a third body being removed later Friday from the same tunnel.
Dozens of Palestinian men have died in collapses and strikes against the economic tunnels, which are used to bring daily-supplies into the blockaded territory. Israel and Egypt imposed the merciless blockade to weaken Gaza's rulers, the Islamic resistance movement of Hamas, who took power in 2007 after winning historic elections.
Israeli violence in Gaza has dropped but not ceased since Israel's devastating offensive in the territory a year ago, aimed at halting humiliating the people of Palestine.
On Thursday, the UN said Israel had agreed in principle to pay the organization around $10 million for damage caused to UN buildings by Israeli forces during the fighting. An Israeli official said an agreement on such a payment was close but had not been finalized.
Photo: A Palestinian boy walks atop a building destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip January 8, 2010. The bodies of a 14-year-old boy and another Palestinian killed in Israeli air strikes were recovered on Friday from an economic tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses and medical workers said. (Reuters photo)