Israeli warplanes fired two missiles into empty lots in the north Gaza Strip, causing loud explosions in the area, witnesses and the army said.

Witnesses said there were no casualties in the attack on Saturday, but they added that ambulances raced to the scene of the explosions.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the firing came in response to earlier rocket attacks from the coastal strip into Israel.

The intended target was the area from which rockets are fired into southern Israel.

Israel Radio reported that Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz had said Israel would respond immediately to any attack on its territory or citizens.

After the rocket fire, a military spokeswoman said that three explosions had been identified near the border with the Gaza Strip and that the Israeli army had responded with artillery fire aimed at the firing zones.

 Response
The Gaza fighters said they fired the rockets in response to the killing of a Palestinian man on a fishing boat by an Israeli naval patrol vessel.

Israel's navy has largely blockaded Gaza's coast during much of a five-year-old Palestinian uprising, forcing Palestinian boats to stay close to shore.

Most of the restrictions have remained in place despite Israel's Gaza pullout in September.

 Infighting

Meanwhile, five Palestinians, including a police officer, were killed and many were wounded, some seriously, on Saturday as members of two rival clans clashed in a fierce firefight in Gaza, paramedics and witnesses said.

Palestinian security forces were having difficulty restoring calm, and mediators and bystanders were wounded as bullets and grenades flew in a neighbourhood of the town of Beit Hanoun in north Gaza.

It was a further example of lawlessness in the Gaza Strip, seen as a testing ground for future Palestinian statehood after Israel withdrew from the coastal territory in September following 38 years of military rule.

 The motive for the clash that began on Friday was unclear; but paramedics said at least five of about 40 wounded were in critical condition as rival family members used assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the clash.

Witnesses said the police officer was killed by a stray bullet. Many families fled their homes in fear of being hit by stray bullets as gunmen took up positions on rooftops.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians look at the damage in a building used by an association linked to the Islamic Jihad movement after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike early Sunday Dec. 4, 2005. (AP)

Source: Al-Jazeera