Israeli Apache helicopters carried out five airstrikes in the Gaza Strip late Thursday and early Friday, Palestinian witnesses said.

A metal plant in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Ballah was hit in the latest of a series of air raid in less than two hours on different targets in the Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported in these attacks.

The witnesses said that two cultural centers belonging to the militant group Hamas in Gaza City and the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis were bombarded as well as a graveyard.

The helicopters fired missiles at a car that drove near Deir el-Ballah, but apparently missed the target, witnesses said.

The attacks was apparently in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli woman by homemade rockets fired by Palestinian militants on Thursday.

Hours before the rocket attack, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian militant in the West Bank city of Nablus.

The violence has flared up since a Palestinian suicide bomber killed five Israelis in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on Tuesday.

Source: Xinhua