Palestinians fire 3 rockets at southern Israel: Army

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired three rockets at southern Israel on Saturday night, the Israeli army said, the second attack in 24 hours.

"Three projectiles were recognised to have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory," the English-language WhatsApp statement said.

"Two projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defence system." There were no reports of casualties but police said that a rocket fragment fell on a house in the southern town of Sderot.

The Israeli army's statement did not say what happened to the third rocket. Rockets falling in uninhabited areas after dark are often not located until daylight.

Air raid sirens had sounded in Sderot and its surroundings.

Later, the army reported that an attack helicopter and tank fired at "a number of armed suspects adjacent to the (border) fence in the northern Gaza Strip."

An army spokeswoman contacted by AFP could not say if the suspects were hit and Palestinian authorities could not immediately confirm any casualties.

Saturday night's incidents followed a rocket attack late Friday, which came after a period of calm since mid-July.

In response, Israeli warplanes struck at least three targets in the Gaza Strip early on Saturday but caused no casualties, a Palestinian security source said.

The strikes hit a Hamas observation post in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, an unidentified target near Gaza City and open ground near Deir El Balah in the central part of the territory, the source said.

An Israeli army statement mentioned only two strikes, against "underground targets belonging to the Hamas terror organisation in the northern and central Gaza Strip." It did not elaborate.

Israel and Hamas -- the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian enclave of Gaza -- have fought three wars since 2008.