Israeli army spokesman Friday said Israeli war jets carried out two airstrikes on southern Gaza Strip at predawn in response to Gaza militants' rocket firing.

"The Israel Air Force successfully targeted a weapon manufacturing facility in southern Gaza Strip and an arms smuggling tunnel on the Rafah border in a joint IDF-ISA operation, " the spokesman Avihai Edri'ei said in a press statement obtained by Xinhua.

The spokesman added that the attack "is in response to the firing of a rocket that hit the Israeli village of Nirim on Thursday, causing damage," adding that "more than 25 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel since the beginning of the year."

Meanwhile, security sources of Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement and witnesses said Israeli F-16 warplanes struck two targets in southern Gaza Strip early Friday, causing severe damages, but no injuries were reported.

The sources said two missiles of an Israeli F-16 warplane struck a local factory that fills Oxygen balloons used for hospitals in the town of al-Garara northeast of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

Witnesses said huge flames of fire were seen coming out from the targeted factory, adding that the factory was badly damaged after firefighters arrived at the scene, who managed to put off the fire. No injuries were reported.

They added that Hamas security forces, which control the Gaza Strip, prevented journalists and residents from approaching the targeted area, suggesting that the place might belong to Hamas.

The airstrike came shortly after another carried out by an Israeli F-16 warplane at one of the tunnels used for smuggling under the borders between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, causing no injuries.

The two airstrikes came several hours after a radical Jihadi Salafists (Moslem Sunni) group claimed responsibility of firing a homemade rocket from Gaza at southern Israel. The rocket hit an Israeli house and caused damage but no injuries.

Palestinian militants' rocket attacks on Israel had declined since the end of the large-scale Israeli military offensive in Gaza in January, 2009, during which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed and over 5,000 wounded.

The Israeli army spokesman said "The IDF will not tolerate the firing of rockets by terrorist organizations at Israel and will continue to respond harshly against any attempt to disrupt the calm in Israel's southern communities."