Tel Aviv  - The Israeli Air Force attacked what the military said was a weapons factory and two smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip before dawn Thursday, a spokeswoman said.

The triple airstrike was a response to recent rocket fire into Israeli territory from Gaza, the military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said.

She said Gaza militants had fired some 15 rockets and mortar shells at Israel over the past month.

Some 270 have been fired at Israel since last winter's Gaza war, she said.

Israel has responded with pin-point airstrikes to the sporadic, ongoing fire, although since the offensive, both it and the radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza have largely observed an unspoken truce.  (dpa)