Israel targets Hamas sites after Gaza militants fire rockets

Israel has targetted a number of sites in Gaza in response to Palestinian militants firing rockets into the south of the country.

The Israeli Defence Force Saturday said that three Hamas targets -- including a rocket manufacturing site, underground infrastructure, and a military post -- had been struck.

"Hamas will bear the consequences for all terror emanating from Gaza," the IDF said in a tweet.

Sirens had sounded earlier in the southern port city of Ashkelon and the area surrounding the Gaza Strip.

"Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory," a statement from the army said on Friday.

The rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defence System.

Israeli emergency medical services said a few people were treated for going into shock.

The latest fire from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave came over a month after one rocket was fired from the coastal strip into Israel.

Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel, seized control of Gaza from the rival Palestinian movement Fatah in 2007 in a near civil war. Since then Hamas has fought three devastating wars with Israel in the coastal territory where about two million Palestinians live.

Israel has since maintained a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas from arming.

(with inputs from AFP)