Members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades Jerusalem/Gaza – Sona Adeek with Mohammed Habib Israeli aircraft attacked three Hamas training camps in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, causing no injuries, eyewitnesses in the enclave said. An Israeli helicopter fired six missiles at two different sites northwest of Gaza city , both training camps for Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, eyewitnesses said.
In addition, an Israeli aircraft fired four rockets at a Qassam training camp south of Gaza City, according to sources in Gaza.
There were no injuries in any of the attacks.
The Israeli military confirmed the strikes on the northern Gaza Strip, without mentioning the third one.
In a statement, the army said its "aircraft targeted two sites -- a weapon manufacturing site and a weapon storage facility in the northern Gaza Strip."
"Direct hits were confirmed. The sites were targeted in response to the continuous rocket fire towards southern Israel," the statement read.
On Monday, Gaza militants fired three mortars that hit southern Israel, causing no damages or injuries.
And on Sunday, two factories in the southern Israeli city Sderot were damaged by rockets. A Salafist group from Gaza, Mujahedeen Shura Council, assumed responsibility for that attack.
Israeli analysts accused groups close to global jihadist network al-Qaeda of firing a rocket on Sunday on areas in southern Israel, while leaders among Israel's army and political parties threatened Palestinian resistance movement Hamas with retribution after the rocket attacks. There were no reported casualties.
According to Israel's Channel 2, the rockets fired on Sunday were meant to thwart the beginning of the new academic year in Israeli settlements around Gaza Strip.
Al-Qaeda militants were allegedly responsible for the attack.
Analyst Ehud Yaari said: "A Salafist jihadist group [MSC] which is close al-Qaeda and deployed in Gaza fired rockets in retaliation for Hamas as the latter arrests and prosecutes its members, following the attack which killed 16 Egyptians soldiers on the border with Gaza on August 5".
Yaari said that the founder of the MSC was an Egyptian activist in al-Qaeda named Hisham al Saadany. Hamas arrested him in March 2010, and released him ten days ago. "It is believed that there is no agreement between him and Hamas, but now it turns out that they want revenge," he said.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has maintained a tacit truce with Israel, but other armed Palestinian groups regularly fire rockets and mortars across the border, which can spark air strikes in response.
Tensions regularly flare along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian militants firing rockets into the Jewish state and the Israeli military launching retaliatory air strikes on the Palestinian territory.
The last major flare-up was in June when militants fired more than 150 rockets at southern Israel, wounding five people, and Israel hit back with air strikes which killed 15 Palestinians.
The commander of the southern region in the Israeli army Tel Rousseau threatened on Sunday, after visiting the sites where rockets where fired in Sderot, to respond to the attack, charging Hamas with responsibility: "Hamas controls the Gaza Strip which is responsible for the continuation of the terrorist attacks. We will respond to the rocket launchers. "
The leader of the opposition centre-right Kadima party and the former Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, who was visiting Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, near Sderot, threatened to "decisively" respond against Hamas, saying the rocket fire was a "test" by the movement against Israel.
He added: "I send a message to the leaders of the Hamas; your blood in your heads will be liquefied if any harm happens to anyone of our children. The school year will start, and it is our duty to ensure security for the people of the south.”
Hamas denounced Israel's threat to "assassinate" the Palestinian movement's leaders, saying it was part of "cheap blackmail".
Hamas leader Yahya Moussa said: "These threats have become a method pursued by the occupation in each election round of its government," saying Israel would not launch any attack against Hamas.
The Hamas leader on Monday re-emphasised the right of his movement to defend its people in Gaza by all means, explaining that the resistance was "willing to pay any tax in order to defend its rights".
Channel 2 reported on the situation in the settlements around the Strip, and talked about the Barzilai hospital in central Ashkelon, the possibility of being easily attacked by Hamas missiles and how the Israeli soldiers and civilians can be treated in case of injury, referring to the absence of any fortified rooms or places inside.
A number of doctors and settlers demanded, through the report which was broadcast Sunday evening, the need to protect the hospital for fear of rockets in case of a major confrontation.