Israeli air force planes have bombed areas of the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Palestinian rocket attack on the southern town of Sderot, the Israel Defence Forces have said.
The aircraft raided two plants producing weapons in Gaza City and four tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border used to smuggle arms, the IDF said in an e-mailed statement early today.
The IDF said the attack was in response to the firing of missiles from the Gaza Strip "including nearly 685 rockets and mortars that hit Israel since the beginning of 2009."
There have been no reports of injuries.
The raids took place hours after a Qassam rocket yesterday hit Sderot, damaging a house, the IDF said. The rocket landed between two houses in the southern town, lightly wounding one person and causing extensive damage to one of the buildings, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported, citing residents.
Sderot hasn't been struck in almost two months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing fresh pressure from the United States to freeze Jewish settlement activity that Palestinians see as an impediment to peace.
Mr Netanyahu, on his first visit to Washington since taking over as prime minister less than two months ago, resisted the pressure. He insisted Palestinians need to make concessions, and underscored Israeli worries about Iran.
Making the rounds on Capitol Hill, Netanyahu held talks with Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who raised the settlement issue.
"I emphasised to the prime minister the importance of moving forward, especially in respect to the settlement issue," Mr Kerry said.
The message was the same from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who told reporters President Barack Obama's position was that "he wants to see a stop to the settlements."
The United States and the European Union view all Jewish settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law and obstacles to peace. Netanyahu, who heads a new right-leaning Israeli coalition, has resisted calls to freeze the expansion of Jewish settlements.
He told reporters that Israel is ready to resume the peace process and that the Palestinians "have to take concrete steps to improve relations with Israel." Netanyahu, a familiar figure in Washington because of his prior stint as prime minister during an earlier, failed attempt to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, is eager to avoid alienating the United States, Israel's biggest ally.
But he also faces political pressure at home to resist making concessions to Palestinians who Israelis blame for violent attacks.