Israeli Apache helicopters launched fresh missile attacks on the Gaza Strip shortly after midnight Friday, putting a five-month-old truce at brink of collapse, Palestinian witnesses and security sources reported.

They said that several missiles were fired at targets in Gaza City and the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, where several explosions were heard.

The witnesses said that in Khan Younis, two missiles struck a blacksmith store, engulfing the building in flames.

Security sources said that the airstrike destroyed another blacksmith store in Gaza City. No casualties were reported in both of attacks.

They added that a third strike was aimed at an unknown target west of Gaza City, where a huge explosion and the buzz of helicopters could be heard.

Earlier on Friday night, an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft fired a missile at a group of Palestinian militants before they tried to launch homemade mortar bombs at the Jewish settlements West of Khan Younis. One militant was injured.

Israel killed six Hamas militants on Friday in two air raids on Gaza City and the northern West Bank in a resumption of the targeted killing policy against militants.

The deadly airstrikes came one day after an Israeli woman was killed by a homemade rocket fired by militants from the Gaza Strip into the collective farm of Nativ Ha'asara in southern Israel.

The fatal rocket attack followed the killing of a militant in the West Bank city of Nablus by Israeli troops in response to a suicide bombing in Israeli coastal town of Netanya on Tuesday which left five Israelis dead.

Source: Xinhua