Israeli jets strike Gaza militants targets

Israeli jets carried out a series of successive airstrikes Saturday on targets belonging to militants in the Gaza Strip, ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, no injuries reported, medics and witnesses said, dpa reported.

The witnesses said that F16 warplanes hovered over the salient before firing missiles on training bases for Hamas' armed wing al- Qassam Brigades and underground tunnels used to store weapons.

Five airstrikes were carried out on different targets in northern and central Gaza Strip as well as in Gaza City. The missiles hit a goldsmith store, a Hamas training base and three tunnels in central Gaza Strip.

Adham Abu Selmeya, Gaza emergency chief, told reporters that no injuries were reported. The explosions kept the population awake.

The intensive airstrikes on Gaza were carried out in response to earlier attacks by homemade projectiles carried out by militants from Gaza on southern Israeli towns. No injuries were reported, according to Israel Radio.

Gaza militants have increased their rocket attacks on Israel over the past few weeks, prompting Israel to threaten harsh retaliation.

The Hamas rulers of Gaza have held intensive meetings with other smaller armed groups in an effort to keep them from launching rockets at Israel to avoid a large-scale Israeli operation similar to the one in early 2009 that caused hundreds of deaths.