The IDF before dawn Sunday bombed terrorists preparing to attack the Western Negev with rockets.
Military officials said the aerial attack scored a direct hit, while Hamas charged that a navy boat fired at a terrorist base. Hamas claims one terrorist was killed and that five others were wounded, one of them critically.
The counterterrorist operation spared Negev residents from another round of rockets that have become routine since Israel and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority temporarily returned to direct talks at the behest of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Last week, the Air Force struck two targets in Gaza in retaliation for Kassam rocket attacks. Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza have attacked Israeli civilians with more than 160 rockets and mortar shells since the beginning of 2010, and more than 440 rockets since the end of Operation Cast Lead in mid-January 2009.