JERUSALEM - Israeli warplanes bombed a tunnel along the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt early Monday in what the army said was a response to Palestinian mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the pre-dawn air strike near the southern city of Rafah targeted a tunnel suspected of being used to smuggle explosives into Gaza.

Two Palestinian groups, the Popular Front and the Democratic Front, said they fired mortars Sunday at the Erez border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.  Israeli and Palestinian officials said at least two mortar rounds landed near an ambulance transferring a Palestinian patient into Israel for treatment.

Neither the bombing nor the mortar attacks appear to have caused any casualties.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip four years ago was a mistake that will not be repeated.

Mr. Netanyahu said the pullout in 2005 did not bring peace or security.  Two years later, the Palestinian militant faction Hamas, which opposes peace with Israel, battled rival faction Fatah to take control of Gaza.

In the West Bank town of Bethlehem Sunday, some 2,300 delegates from Fatah endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and reserved the movement’s right to resist what it views as Israeli occupation.

The Fatah delegates were in the sixth day of the party’s first convention in 20 years.  They voted Sunday to elect members to Fatah’s most important decision-making bodies - the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council.

Earlier Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said views being expressed at the Fatah conference are not promising, and he said there is no solution for the Middle East other than a comprehensive peace deal.

Israel mounted a three-week military offensive into Gaza early this year, saying it needed to stop cross-border rocket attacks by Hamas and other militant groups. 

Source:  VOA News