Israel's F16 warplanes carried out at predawn Thursday air strikes in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Wednesday's suicide attack which left five people dead in a northern Israeli city, Palestinian witnesses said.

They said several huge explosions were heard after midnight in northern, central and southern Gaza as well as in Gaza City, and many windows and front doors were smashed.

The air strikes came just hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber from the village of Qabatia, near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, blew himself up in Israel's coastal city of Hadera, killing five Israelis and wounding 30 others.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was a response to the killing of one of its top leader in the refugee camp of Tulkarem in the West Bank last week.

Jihad's claim drew condemnation from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials, who said it hurts the highest interests of the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, Israeli army, backed by armored vehicles and jeeps, stormed the village of Qabatia, besieged the home of the suicide bomber Hassan Abu Zeid, and arrested his father, Palestinian security sources said.

The army also raided Jenin, Tulkarem and Qalqilia, and surrounded several refugee camps and villages surrounding the three towns in northern West Bank, the sources said.

Israeli warplanes also carried out two air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, causing no casualties.

An interior ministry statement sent to reporters said that the strikes targeted an empty area and a newly-built bridge in the city.

The army confirmed the strikes on Beit Hanoun, saying they were carried out to prevent Palestinian militants from using them to launch homemade rockets at Israel.

Source: Xinhua