Israeli planes strike targets in Gaza

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli planes carried out air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip Sunday, injuring seven Palestinians, Palestinian medical workers said.

An army spokesman said the strikes, which occurred after a rocket fired from the Hamas-run enclave landed in Israel, had targeted two factories in the central and northern Gaza used to make weapons and a smuggling tunnel under the border with Egypt.

Palestinian witnesses and medical workers said the targets included a metal foundry in the central Gaza Strip, a caravan in the north and smuggling tunnels in the south.

The attacks occurred one day after Hamas said it had reached an agreement with smaller armed groups in the territory to halt sporadic rocket fire toward Israel, which often responds with air strikes.

The army spokesman said the air strikes were in response to a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip Saturday. It landed near the city of Sderot, causing no injuries or damage, he said.

Calm along the Israel-Gaza frontier has been largely maintained since Israel ended a 22-day war against Hamas in the territory in January with the aim of halting daily rocket fire.

The Israeli military usually responds to sporadic rocket attacks by launching air strikes against tunnels under the Egyptian border used to smuggle goods and weapons into Gaza.

Egypt has been trying to mediate a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas that would include the release of a captured Israeli soldier held in Gaza since 2006 in return for hundreds of Palestinians jailed in Israel.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Jon Boyle)