Four Gaza rockets hit southern Israel

JERUSALEM, March 8 (UPI) -- Four Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in southern Israel Sunday with no reported injuries or damage, officials said.

Ynetnews.com reported two of the rockets hit open areas in the Eshkol Regional Council with the other two landing in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. The rockets were fired hours after the Israeli Air Force said it had attacked a northern Gaza Strip arms warehouse and two smuggling tunnels suspected of being used by the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

"The (Israeli military) views the Hamas organization as fully responsible for maintaining a state of calm in the southern Israeli communities, and the (military) will continue to respond harshly to any attempt to violate this calm," an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement.

Earlier Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked a smuggling tunnel after three rockets were launched. Palestinian sources said one gunmen had been killed and two were injured in the shelling near the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.