Jerusalem (AFP) - The Israeli air force struck a militant target in the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, the military said, hours after Palestinians fired a rocket into southern Israel.

"In response to this attack, the Israel Defence Forces struck the launcher from which the rocket was fired at Israel earlier," an army statement said. "A hit was confirmed."

The rocket fired earlier fell on open ground in the vicinity of Yad Mordechai, it said, referring to a kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border.

No injuries were reported in either the rocket strike or the Israeli response.

It was the fifth such incident in just under a month.

The last rocket to hit Israel previously was on June 6 and was answered within hours by an Israeli air strike into the coastal strip.

Neither caused any casualties.

There were also retaliatory air strikes after three previous rocket attacks since May 26.

A rocket was fired on June 11 but it fell short and landed inside the Palestinian territory.

Israel went to war against the Islamist Hamas, the de facto power in Gaza, last summer with the aim of stamping out cross-border rocket and mortar attacks.

The 50-day conflict killed about 2,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 on the Israeli side, most of them soldiers.

It also caused heavy damage to Gaza's infrastructure and damaged more than 160,000 homes.