They said that Israeli F-16 fighters fired two missiles towards the disused Gaza International Airport in southern Gaza Strip, causing further damage to previously shelled compounds.

The warplanes also targeted a Hamas training base in the center of the coastal Strip, causing partial damage to nearby houses. In the north of the Strip, the fighter aircrafts bombarded an open area.

An Israeli army spokesman announced that the warplanes had carried out the raids in response to a homemade Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza last night.

He added a second one had hit a factory in southern Israel, although no one was hurt in either attack.

The spokesman added that the air strikes targeted a "terror tunnel" near Rafah city and a weapons manufacturing facility in the south of the Gaza Strip.

No armed group in Gaza claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks on Israel.

However, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Ali Mustafa brigades, announced that they had fired an RPG at an Israeli bulldozer destroying agricultural lands in areas south of Gaza City.

Israeli aerial forces launched a strike on Gaza on Friday in response to a mortar shell that was fired at the Western Negev.

It was the first attack on the strip since the Israeli navy raided the Freedom Flotilla that was carrying humanitarian aid to the region.