Israeli warplanes and artillery have pounded an area of northern Gaza as violence continues following Israel's assassination on Monday of a senior Islamic Jihad figure in the occupied West Bank.
This morning's assualt was claimed by Israel to be in response to Palestinian fighters firing a rocket into Israel's southern town of Sderot.
No casualties were reported in any of the incidents, part of a flare-up of violence this week that has been one of the worst since Israel left the Gaza Strip last month.
The violence has threatened to unravel an eight-month-old cease-fire and has cast a shadow over international hopes of a revival of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking since the Jewish state withdrew from Gaza after 38 years of occupation.
After a lull in violence for much yesterday, fighters fired two rockets at Israel from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza today, witnesses said. An Israeli military source said the remains of one rocket were found near a Sderot college.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. Abbas had condemned earlier rocket attacks.
About two hours after Sderot was hit, the Israeli military said it had sent warplanes to carry out a bombing raid against a rocket launch-pad in northern Gaza.
The aircraft fired "warning shots into an open area from where Qassam rockets were launched" to prevent further attacks, the military said.
It said the army directed artillery fire at northern Gaza, and Palestinian witnesses reported explosions in the area near Beit Hanoun.