The Israel Defense Forces hit three Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon, hours after a rocket fired from Gaza struck an open field just over the Israel-Gaza border.

No injuries or damages were reported due to the Palestinian strike, which landed south of the Israeli city of Ashkelon. IDF spokesman Peter Lerner pointed out that the rocket attack and the ensuing sirens “disrupted the daily lives of Israelis.”

“The IDF will not tolerate rocket fire toward civilians and will continue to ensure security and stability in the region,” he said in a statement.

In response, an IDF tank shelled a Hamas position in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya, and airstrikes hit Hamas targets in nearby Jabalia, including a naval base, Palestinian media reported.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said on Twitter that there were no Palestinian injuries from the strikes.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the original rocket into Israel, but the Jewish state holds Hamas, the terror group that has ruled the Strip since it took over in a coup nearly ten years ago, responsible for all outgoing rocket fire.

The exchange came two days after the head of Hamas’ explosives unit was killed in an accidental blast. Signs carried during Muhammad Hemada Walid al-Quqa’s funeral procession stated that he was killed while “preparing something for the enemy,” Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

The IDF believes that Hamas has fully rebuilt many of the military capabilities that Israel destroyed during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014. The terror group claimed in its annual end-of-year report that it killed 17 Israelis and wounded 437 more in 2016. The IDF said in December that Hamas is intensifying efforts to surveil Israeli communities by the Gaza border, which the military believes will be targeted for kidnapping attacks in the event of a future conflict.

[Photo: Albert Sadikov / Flash90]