Gaza/Tel Aviv  - Israel bombed two more smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border early Wednesday, responding to a rocket attack by Palestinian militants, the military said.

Three Palestinians in the tunnels were reported injured in the 0100 (2300 GMT) air strike.

An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said the tunnels hit in the southern Gaza town of Rafah were used for smuggling weapons into the strip.

He said that Palestinian militants launched one Gaza-produced rocket into southern Israeli territory Tuesday.

Since August, Gaza militants launched some 65 rockets and mortar shells at Israel, bringing to more than 250 the number of projectiles fired at southern Israel since a deadly and destructive Israeli offensive in Gaza aimed at curbing such attacks last winter.

Some 1,400 Palestinians, most of the civilians according to human rights groups, were killed in the December 27 - January 18 offensive, as well as 13 Israelis.

In the year leading up to it, militants fired more than 3,000 rockets and mortars at Israel from Gaza, the military said.

Rocket and mortar attacks have become sporadic since then, and Israel has routinely responded to them with air strikes on the smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza.

The Gaza conflict was expected to feature high at a UN Security Council special session on the Middle East scheduled for Wednesday.

The UN Human Rights Council was expected to convene the next day, Thursday, to discuss a report accusing both Israel and the radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza of having committed war crimes during and ahead of the three-week offensive. (dpa)