The Israeli army launched an airstrike targeting a bridge in the Gaza Strip on late Tuesday, witnesses said.

An Israeli F-16 warplane fired one missile at the bridge that links Gaza City with the southern Gaza Strip and destroyed it, said the witnesses.

Palestinian security sources confirmed the air raid, saying that the bridge was hit and destroyed in the attack and that a main water pipe that supplies water to the central area of the Gaza Strip was also destroyed.

There was no report of any casualties.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said that the airstrike was aimed to prevent Palestinian militants from taking a kidnapped Israeli soldier out of the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported.

But the army said that military tanks recently deployed along the Gaza border had not begun moving into the Gaza Strip.

The late night airstrike came as Israeli troops are massing along the northern Gaza border, preparing for a large-scale military operation following a deadly Palestinian militant attack on an Israeli army border post on Sunday.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed, four others wounded and another was kidnapped during the cross-border attack.

Israel has turned down demands by the Palestinian militants to set free Palestinian women and minors jailed by Israel in exchange for information on the abducted soldier.

The Jewish state has vowed a tough retaliation if the soldier is not released unhurt.

Source: Xinhua