The Israeli air force said it had carried out overnight air strikes against Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) sites in the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired from the coastal enclave towards Israeli territory.

The Israeli move came as a response to the earlier firing of a rocket at southern Israel, which no group has claimed responsibility for and no casualties were reported.

"In response to the rocket fired toward Israeli territory, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighter jets targeted overnight (Sunday) a weapons manufacturing site belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation where the majority of the organisation's rockets in the Gaza Strip are being manufactured," the Israeli army said in a statement.

The IDF also hit "a Hamas terrorist tunnel in the Southern Gaza Strip," it said.

Witnesses told Xinhua News Agency that Israeli army drones and fighter jets were heard buzzing in the air and several explosions were heard west of the southern Gaza Strip cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Palestinian medical sources said that no injuries were found during the strikes that mainly targeted the Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Militants in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave also fired at least five rockets at southern Israeli communities close to the borders with the Gaza Strip during the airstrikes, sources close to Hamas security told Xinhua, adding that an anti-craft missile was fired at Israeli fighter jets by Hamas militants.

Media outlets in Gaza quoted an Egyptian source as saying that Egyptian intelligence is in intensive contact with the Palestinian factions to avoid an escalation in Gaza.

(With input from Xinhua and AFP)