Israeli warplanes bombed a tunnel along the Gaza Strip border with Egypt on Monday, the Israeli military, Hamas officials and witnesses said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the pre-dawn raid in the Palestinian coastal territory, ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.

The raid was launched in response to recent mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said the warplanes targeted a tunnel under the town of Rafah suspected of being used to smuggle explosives into Gaza from Egypt.  Israel has frequently attacked tunnels it says are used to smuggle weapons or materials to build weapons, though such raids have occurred less frequently in the past few months.

Israel launched a ground and air offensive in Gaza in December, in which some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in what the Jewish state called a response to rocket fire by Gaza militants. Fourteen Israelis were killed in the 22-day conflict. – Reuters