Israel hits two Gaza City targets

The attacks follow an earlier explosion targeting a Hamas leader

An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at targets in Gaza City after nightfall, military officials say.

A military spokesperson says the attack targeted two weapons manufacturing facilities.

Residents say the first missile hit a car battery factory in a building with two empty flats. The second missile hit a another factory. Five people were killed in an earlier explosion near the house of a leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Ahmed al-Jabari was injured in the attack, which killed his son and at least three known militants, Reuters news agency reported.

At least a dozen others were wounded.

In another incident, at least two people were injured, one seriously, after Hamas militants fired mortars at the Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim in the Gaza Strip.

Bombing link

One of the targets of the latest strike, in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, appeared to be a store owned by the father of a suicide bomber who blew herself up at a crossing to Israel in January, killing four Israelis.

The same building was targeted in a similar raid in July when Israeli sources said the workshop was being used to produce makeshift Qassam rockets, the AFP news agency reported.

Witnesses told Reuters news agency that the second target was a metal foundry in the east of the city.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli army said in a statement that the targets "were part of the manufacture and supply network of weapons in the Gaza Strip".

Israel has struck such workshops in the past, saying they manufacture arms for militant groups.