IDF aircraft struck a Hamas naval base in the Gaza Strip early Thursday morning after a rocket was fired into southern Israel from the territory.
Several targets at the base in Gaza City had been hit, the IDF said.
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"In response to the rocket fired from Gaza to Israel, we just struck a number of military targets in a Hamas naval facility in the northern Gaza Strip," the IDF stated in a tweet.
The rocket was the fifth in a week and landed in open ground in southern Israel. There were no reports of injuries.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the rocket launch and it was unclear if it was carried out by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or another recalcitrant terrorist group operating out of Gaza.
The tit-for-tat exchange has shattered weeks of a tense calm along the volatile Gaza-Israel border.
Gaza's Hamas rulers say that Israel's slow-moving approach to implementing an unofficial Egyptian-brokered truce aimed at alleviating the enclave's dire living conditions could lead to a further escalation.
In a joint statement issued earlier in the week, the armed Palestinian factions warned that Gaza was a "volcano about to erupt."
A senior Hamas official on Monday told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar that if Israel doesn't implement ceasefire understandings by allowing the transfer of monthly financial aid from Qatar, in addition to increasing the electricity supply to Gaza by Friday, August 23, it would escalate hostilities along the border.
In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was readying plans for a "forceful military strike against Hamas."
"I am preparing a massive campaign; it will be different than anything we have seen before," Netanyahu said. "I cannot elaborate on the preparations but we are properly positioned for such a scenario."
Meanwhile, Qatari envoy Mohammed Al-Emadi was expected to arrive in the area over the weekend to meet with senior Israeli officials and then continue to Gaza, where he will meet with Hamas leaders in an effort to preserve the ceasefire agreement and secure the transfer of Qatari aid money to the people of Gaza.
