GAZA, Sept 15 (Reuters/JMCC) - Israeli aircraft bombed smuggling tunnels under the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt on Wednesday, killing a Palestinian, witnesses said, after armed fighters stepped up rocket and mortar bomb attacks during peace talks in Jerusalem.

The violence coincided with a visit to Jerusalem by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was taking part in negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Witnesses in the Palestinian town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, said the Israeli air strikes killed a tunnel worker and wounded two other people. There was no immediate Israeli confirmation of the attacks.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said a rocket and eight mortar bombs fired from the Gaza Strip, territory run by Hamas Islamists opposed to Abbas's peace efforts, landed in southern Israel. No one was hurt.

She said it was the largest number of projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip in a single day since March 2009. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Israel launched a devastating 22-day offensive in Gaza in December 2008 with the aim of stopping cross-border rocket attacks.

The Israeli military said some 150 rockets and mortar bombs have been fired from the Gaza Strip so far this year.