The Israel Air Force struck targets in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday after five rockets hit southern Israel the previous evening.

The IDF said that it had targeted weapons manufacturing sites, underground rocket launchers and "centers of terrorist activity" located in different areas of the Strip.

In a similar strike that took place a few hours earlier, on Saturday night, an Israeli aircraft targeted three underground rocket launchers in the Strip's center. The operation came in retaliation for rockets fired from Gaza earlier in the evening, the IDF said, adding that it holds Hamas responsible .

One of the rockets launched from Gaza caused a fire in a paint factory in the city of Sderot. Emergency services managed to gain control of the fire by 10 P.M. A second rocket exploded in open terrain in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, while two more hit the Sdot Negev Regional council.

The barrage continued as a fifth rocket hit an open area near Sderot around 11 P.M.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon spoke with Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi on Saturday, and told him the defense establishment "will not tolerate Gaza terror groups' attempts to disrupt the daily lives of the southern residents."

"We'll keep acting with a firm hand against the terrorists who shoot at Israel, and we'll deal them a painful blow," Ya'alon said.

Earlier on Saturday the Israeli air force struck four targets in the Gaza Strip, including "two centers of terrorist activity, a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza and a weapons storage site in southern Gaza," according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

Two rockets fired from Gaza at Israel's south were intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system on Friday evening, hours after two Palestinian militants were killed in an Israel Air Force strike in the northern Gaza Strip.