Israeli warplanes on Sunday night struck by air-to-ground missiles the tunnels used for smuggling under the borderline between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, witnesses and security sources said.

The witnesses said that F-16 jets hovered over Rafah town and struck by missiles the borderline zone between the town and Egypt, where hundreds of tunnels had been dug and used for smuggling stuffs from Egypt to Gaza.

The Israeli aerial attack came after militants fired earlier Sunday two homemade rockets from northern Gaza Strip to Israel. Israeli radio reported the two shells landed on an empty area, causing no injuries or damages.

A radical Jihadi Salafi armed group claimed responsibility in a statement sent to reporters for firing the two rockets at Israel.

After the incident, Israeli soldiers at the borders between eastern town of Jabalia and Israel in northern Gaza Strip fired two tank shells at a group of Palestinians, killing two people.

Al-Qassam Brigades, Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing, said in a statement sent to reporters that two of its members were killed in the Israeli artillery shelling.

Hamas movement has accepted an unwritten and an undeclared ceasefire with Israel since the end of the 22-day Israeli war on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that ended on January 18, leaving around 1,450 Palestinians killed.

Since Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip more than two years ago, the Palestinians have dug hundreds of underground tunnels to defy the blockade by smuggling goods Palestinians needed.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2009)